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146 results for “social behaviour”
Data from: Getting older, getting smarter: ontogeny of the foraging behaviour in the tropical social wasp Ropalidia marginata
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Data from: Dynamics in brain activation and behaviour in acute and repeated social defensive behaviour
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Data for: Infectious disease and sickness behaviour: tumour progression affects interaction patterns and social network structure in wild Tasmanian devils
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Dynamic encoding of social threat and spatial context in the hypothalamus - calcium activity recordings and behavioural dataset
<p>Social aggression and avoidance are defensive behaviors expressed by territorial animals in a manner appropriate to spatial context and experience. The ventromedial hypothalamus controls both social aggression and avoidance, suggesting that it may encode an general internal state of threat modulated by space and experience. Here we show that neurons in the mouse ventromedial hypothalamus are activated both by the presence of a social threat as well as by a chamber where social defeat previously occurred. Moreover, under conditions where the animal could move freely between a home and defeat chamber, firing activity emerged that predicted the animal's position, demonstrating the dynamic encoding of spatial context in the hypothalamus. Finally, we found that social defeat induced a functional reorganization of neural activity as optogenetic activation could elicit avoidance after, but not before social defeat. These findings reveal how the hypothalamus dynamically encodes spatial and sensory cues to drive social behaviors.</p>
The (limited) power of social behaviour
<p>3<sup><sub>rd</sub></sup> Lecture</p>
Preventive behaviours during the pandemic: the role of collective rituals, emotional synchrony, social norms, and moral obligation
<p>One of the main challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic is that it has necessitated a series of behavioural changes designed to stop the spread of the disease. This study focuses on collective processes with a social influence and intra-individual processes, as factors which mould preventive behaviours among Spanish citizens (<em>N</em> = 528). Using an on-line survey, we explored the impact of the ritual of collective applause (carried out daily for over 70 days), the role of perceived social norms in fostering preventive behaviours, and the mediating power of perceived emotional synchrony and a sense of moral obligation, as intra-individual processes. The dependent variables were preventive behaviours carried out in the past and intention to continue engaging in them in the future. </p>
Data from: Social behaviour and collective motion in plant-animal worms
Social behaviour may enable organisms to occupy ecological niches that would otherwise be unavailable to them. Here we test this major evolutionary principle by demonstrating self-organizing social behaviour in the plant-animal, Symsagittifera roscoffensis. These marine aceol flat worms rely for all of their nutrition on the algae within their bodies: hence their common name. We show that individual worms interact with one another to co-ordinate their movements so that even at low densities they begin to swim in small polarized groups and at increasing densities such flotillas turn into circular mills. We use computer simulations to: (1) determine if real worms interact socially by comparing them with virtual worms that do not interact and (2) show that the social phase transitions of the real worms can occur based only on local interactions between and among them. We hypothesize that such social behaviour helps the worms to form the dense biofilms or mats observed on certain sun-exposed sandy beaches in the upper intertidal of the East Atlantic and to become in effect a super-organismic seaweed in a habitat where macro-algal seaweeds cannot anchor themselves. S. roscoffensis, a model organism in many other areas in biology (including stem cell regeneration), also seems to be an ideal model for understanding how individual behaviours can lead, through collective movement, to social assemblages.
Data from: Viral infection causes sex-specific changes in fruit fly social aggregation behaviour
Host behavioural changes following infection are common and could be important determinants of host behavioural competence to transmit pathogens. Identifying potential sources of variation in sickness behaviours is therefore central to our understanding of disease transmission. Here, we test how group social aggregation and individual locomotor activity vary between different genotypes of male and female fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) following septic infection with Drosophila C Virus. We find genetic-based variation in both locomotor activity and social aggregation but we did not detect an effect of DCV infection on fly activity or sleep patterns within the initial days following infection. However, DCV infection caused sex-specific effects on social aggregation, as male flies in most genetic backgrounds increased the distance to their nearest neighbour when infected. We discuss possible causes for these differences in the context of individual variation in immunity and their potential consequences for disease transmission.
Data from: Heritabilities, social environment effects and genetic correlations of social behaviours in a cooperatively breeding vertebrate
Social animals interact frequently with conspecifics, and their behaviour is influenced by social context, environmental cues and the behaviours of interaction partners, allowing for adaptive, flexible adjustments to social encounters. This flexibility can be limited by part of the behavioural variation being genetically determined. Furthermore, behaviours can be genetically correlated, potentially constraining independent evolution. Understanding social behaviour thus requires carefully disentangling genetic, environmental, maternal and social sources of variations as well as the correlation structure between behaviours. Here, we assessed heritability, maternal, common environment and social effects of eight social behaviours in Neolamprologus pulcher, a cooperatively breeding cichlid. We bred wild-caught fish in a paternal half-sibling design and scored ability to defend a resource against conspecifics, to integrate into a group and the propensity to help defending the group territory ('helping behaviour'). We assessed genetic, social and phenotypic correlations within clusters of behaviours predicted to be functionally related, namely 'competition', 'aggression', 'aggression-sociability', 'integration' and 'integration-help'. Helping behaviour and two affiliative behaviours were heritable, whereas there was little evidence for a genetic basis in all other traits. Phenotypic social effects explained part of the variation in a sociable and a submissive behaviour, but there were no maternal or common environment effects. Genetic and phenotypic correlation within clusters were mostly positive. A group's social environment influenced covariances of social behaviours. Genetic correlations were similar in magnitude but usually exceeding the phenotypic ones, indicating that conclusions about the evolution of social behaviours in this species could be provisionally drawn from phenotypic data in cases where data for genetic analyses are unobtainable.
Data from: Dynamic social behaviour in a bacterium: Pseudomonas aeruginosa partially compensates for siderophore loss to cheats
Cooperation underlies diverse phenomena including the origins of multicellular life, human behaviour in economic markets and the mechanisms by which pathogenic bacteria cause disease. Experiments with microorganisms have advanced our understanding of how, when and why cooperation evolves, but the extent to which microbial cooperation can recapitulate aspects of animal behaviour is debated. For instance, understanding the evolution of behavioural response rules (how should one individual respond to another's decision to cooperate or defect?) is a key part of social evolution theory, but the possible existence of such rules in social microbes has not been explored. In one specific context (biparental care in animals), cooperation is maintained if individuals respond to a partner's defection by increasing their own investment into cooperation, but not so much that this fully compensates for the defector's lack of investment. This is termed 'partial compensation.' Here, I show that partial compensation for the presence of non-cooperating 'cheats' is also observed in a microbial social behaviour: the cooperative production of iron-scavenging siderophores by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A period of evolution in the presence of cheats maintains this response, whereas evolution in the absence of cheats leads to a loss of compensatory behaviour. These results demonstrate i) the remarkable flexibility of bacterial social behaviour; ii) the potential generality of partial compensation as a social response rule; and iii) the need for mathematical models to explore the evolution of response rules in multi-player social interactions.
Data from: The melanocortin system regulates body pigmentation and social behaviour in a colour polymorphic cichlid fish
The melanocortin system is a neuroendocrine system that regulates a range of physiological and behavioural processes. We examined the extent to which the melanocortin system simultaneously regulates colour and behaviour in the cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni. We found that yellow males are more aggressive than blue males, in line with previous studies. We then found that exogenous α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH) increases yellowness of the body and dispersal of xanthophore pigments in both morphs. However, α-MSH had a morph-specific effect on aggression, with only blue males showing an increase in the rate of aggression. Exogenous agouti signalling peptide (ASIP), a melanocortin antagonist, did not affect coloration but reduced the rate of aggression in both colour morphs. Blue males had higher cortisol levels than yellow males. Neural gene expression of melanocortin receptors (mcr) and ligands was not differentially regulated between colour morphs. In the skin, however, mc1r and pro-opiomelanocortin (pomc) β were upregulated in blue males, while asip 1 was upregulated in yellow males. The effects of α-MSH on behaviour and body coloration, combined with morph-specific regulation of the stress response and the melanocortin system, suggest that the melanocortin system contributes to the polymorphism in behaviour and coloration in A. burtoni.
Data from: Social disappointment explains chimpanzees' behaviour in the inequity aversion task
Chimpanzees' refusal of less-preferred food when an experimenter has previously provided preferred food to a conspecific has been taken as evidence for a sense of fairness. Here, we present a novel hypothesis—the social disappointment hypothesis—according to which food refusals express chimpanzees' disappointment in the human experimenter for not rewarding them as well as they could have. We tested this hypothesis using a two-by-two design in which food was either distributed by an experimenter or a machine and with a partner present or absent. We found that chimpanzees were more likely to reject food when it was distributed by an experimenter rather than by a machine and that they were not more likely to do so when a partner was present. These results suggest that chimpanzees' refusal of less-preferred food stems from social disappointment in the experimenter and not from a sense of fairness.
Data from: Behavioural responses vary with prey species in the social spider, Stegodyphus sarasinorum
Predators living in social groups often show consistent inter-individual differences in prey capture behaviour that may be linked to personality. Though personality predisposes individuals for certain behaviours, responses can also be influenced by context. Studies examining personality-dependent participation in prey capture have largely employed only one prey species, offering the predator no choice. In nature, predators encounter a range of prey species, therefore participation in or leading a prey capture event must also depend on prey attributes (for example, size and risk). In the social spider Stegodyphus sarasinorum, collective prey capture is mediated by personality types as a consequence of which some individuals are consistently more likely to attack. Here, we examined if an individual's consistency to attack persisted within and between the two prey species (honeybees and grasshoppers), and if the same individuals attacked first with both prey species. Our results showed that inter-individual differences in attacking persisted within- and between the two prey species. Spiders showed greater participation in attacking grasshoppers relative to bees. Identities of first attackers were not the same for bees and grasshoppers. Spiders showed greater consistency over time in attacking bees relative to grasshoppers. Bees attracted fewer attackers than size-matched grasshoppers. These results suggest that greater task specialization may be necessary to successfully subdue bees. Spiders handled bees more cautiously, which is likely to explain the observed plasticity in attacking the two prey species. Thus, participation in prey capture in social spiders is influenced by the attributes of prey species.
Dataset for Social context modulates idiosyncrasy of behaviour in the gregarious cockroach Blaberus discoidalis
<p>Individuals are different, but they can work together to perform adaptive collective behaviours. Despite emerging evidence that individual variation strongly affects group performance, it is less clear to what extent individual variation is modulated by participation in collective behaviour. We examined light avoidance (negative phototaxis) in the gregarious cockroach Blaberus discoidalis, in both solitary and group contexts. Cockroaches in groups exhibit idiosyncratic light-avoidance performance that persists across days, with some individual cockroaches avoiding a light stimulus 75% of the time, and others avoiding the light just above chance (i.e. ~50% of the time). These individual differences are robust to group composition. Surprisingly, these differences do not persist when individuals are tested in isolation, but return when testing is once again done with groups. During the solo testing phase cockroaches exhibited individually consistent light-avoidance tendencies, but these differences were uncorrelated with performance in any group context. Therefore, we have observed not only that individual variation affects group-level performance, but also that whether or not a task is performed collectively can have a significant, predictable effect on how an individual behaves. That individual behavioural variation is modulated by whether a task is performed collectively has major implications for understanding variation in behaviours that are facultatively social, and it is essential that ethologists consider social context when evaluating individual behavioural differences.</p>
Figure 1 in Nesting behaviour of Neotropical social wasps of the genus Clypearia de Saussure (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae)
Figure 1. Location map showing the sampling areas in different Brazilian biomes.
Table 1 in Nesting behaviour of Neotropical social wasps of the genus Clypearia de Saussure (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae)
<p><b>Table 1.</b> Nests of the social wasp <i>Clypearia</i> (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) fixed in plant substrate in ecological conditions in Cerrado and Atlantic Forest of Minas Gerais State, and associated with ants in Amazon Forest, Amazonas, and Pará State, Brazil.</p><table><tbody><tr><th>Species</th><th>Substrate, ecological condition and state</th></tr></tbody><tbody><tr><th><i>C. angustior</i></th><td>Trunk of arboreous species, around 80 m from the water and 5 m above the ground, Barroso</td></tr><tr><th></th><td>municipality, Minas Gerais State.</td></tr><tr><th><i>C. angustior</i></th><td>Trunk of <i>Pyrus</i> sp. (Rosaceae) in an agricultural area, around 5 m from a river and 1.5 m above the</td></tr><tr><th></th><td>ground (Barroso, Minas Gerais State, Brazil).</td></tr><tr><th><i>C. angustior</i></th><td>Tree trunk in an ombrophilous forest, around 3 m from a river and 3.2 m above the ground (Parque</td></tr><tr><th></th><td>Estadual do Rio Doce, Minas Gerais State, Brazil).</td></tr><tr><th><i>C. apicipennis</i></th><td>Tree trunk in a wetland (Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil) in the Amazon rainforest.</td></tr><tr><th><i>C. weyrauchi</i></th><td>Two colonies in mango tree <i>Mangifera indica</i> L. (Anacardiaceae), over 4 m above the ground, in</td></tr><tr><th></th><td>Amazonas State.</td></tr><tr><th><i>C. sulcata</i></th><td>In a non-identified tree, over 1.5 m above the ground, 7 m from a lake and 10 cm and 40 cm,</td></tr><tr><th></th><td>respectively, from two colonies of the ant <i>Azteca chartifex</i>, Pará State.</td></tr></tbody></table>
Data from: Ancient DNA reveals differences in behaviour and sociality between brown bears and extinct cave bears
Ancient DNA studies have revolutionized the study of extinct species and populations, providing insights on phylogeny, phylogeography, admixture and demographic history. However, inferences on behaviour and sociality have been far less frequent. Here, we investigate the complete mitochondrial genomes of extinct Late Pleistocene cave bears and middle Holocene brown bears that each inhabited multiple geographically proximate caves in northern Spain. In cave bears, we find that, although most caves were occupied simultaneously, each cave almost exclusively contains a unique lineage of closely related haplotypes. This remarkable pattern suggests extreme fidelity to their birth site in cave bears, best described as homing behaviour, and that cave bears formed stable maternal social groups at least for hibernation. In contrast, brown bears do not show any strong association of mitochondrial lineage and cave, suggesting that these two closely related species differed in aspects of their behaviour and sociality. This difference is likely to have contributed to cave bear extinction, which occurred at a time in which competition for caves between bears and humans was likely intense and the ability to rapidly colonize new hibernation sites would have been crucial for the survival of a species so dependent on caves for hibernation as cave bears. Our study demonstrates the potential of ancient DNA to uncover patterns of behaviour and sociality in ancient species and populations, even those that went extinct many tens of thousands of years ago.
Data from: Social status and personality: stability in social state can promote consistency of behavioural responses
Stability of 'state' has been suggested as an underlying factor explaining behavioural stability and animal personality (i.e. variation among, and consistency within individuals in behavioural responses), but the possibility that stable social relationships represent such states remains unexplored. Here, we investigated the influence of social status on the expression and consistency of behaviours by experimentally changing social status between repeated personality assays. We used male domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus), a social species that forms relatively stable dominance hierarchies, and showed that behavioural responses were strongly affected by social status, but also by individual characteristics. The level of vigilance, activity and exploration changed with social status, whereas boldness appeared as a stable individual property, independent of status. Furthermore, variation in vocalization predicted future social status, indicating that individual behaviours can both be a predictor and a consequence of social status, depending on the aspect in focus. Our results illustrate that social states contribute to both variation and stability in behavioural responses, and should therefore be taken into account when investigating and interpreting variation in personality.
Data for: Aggregation in an heterospecific population of blowfly larvae: social behaviour is impacted by species-specific thermal requirements and settlement order
<p><span>Larvae of several blow fly species grow on carcasses and actively aggregate together. They face harsh developmental conditions resulting in a strong pressure to reduce development time: this is achieved either through thermoregulation or aggregation. We investigate how these two developmental strategies are modulated within heterospecific groups. In the first experiment, larvae of two species with different thermal requirements were deposited simultaneously on a thermal gradient. This resulted in the formation of two monospecific groups, each located at the species-specific thermal preferendum. However, when <em>Calliphora</em> <em>vomitoria</em> (Linnaeus) larvae were placed first, the later coming <em>Lucilia</em> <em>sericata</em> (Meigen) larvae attracted the whole group to its own thermal preferendum. In the reverse experiment, a half of the replicates resulted in single dense heterospecific groups observed at temperatures ranging from <em>C. vicina</em> to <em>L. sericata</em> preferendum. The other half of the replicates resulted in loose groups spread out on the thermal gradient. These results highlight the emergence of collective decisions ranging from thermal optimization to heterospecific aggregation at suboptimal temperatures. They demonstrate that species settlement order strongly affects self-organization processes and mixed-species group formation. We conclude that thermal optimization and heterospecific niche construction are two developmental strategies of carrion fly larvae.</span></p>
Figure 6 in Origin of adaptations to open environments and social behaviour in sabretoothed cats from the northeastern border of the Tibetan Plateau
Figure 6. Reconstruction of two Amphimachairodus hezhengensis defending their prey (Hezhengia bohlini) from two Dinocrocuta gigantea. Artwork by Oscar Sanisidro.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.