Behavioural Processes最新文献

{"title":"Assessment of ultrasonic vocalization-mediated communication deficits in AD rats: A social learning paradigm using conspecific drinking behavior","authors":"Xinxiang Su ,&nbsp;Junjun Pu ,&nbsp;Jinxia Liao ,&nbsp;Yuqian Tang ,&nbsp;Liting Feng ,&nbsp;Zhen Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105311","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105311","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>This study aimed to explore the effect of Alzheimer's disease (AD) rats on the drinking behavior of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats and observe the ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) of AD rats and SD rats.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>The 12 AD rats were equally divided into two groups (6 rats per group), and the 36 SD rats were divided into 6 groups (6 rats per group), with no rat reused across different experimental groups. Two independent experimental tasks were conducted: 1) A test field with a sugar area (containing 10 % sucrose solution) and a chili area (containing 0.02 % capsaicin solution) was constructed. The drinking behavior of SD rats (placed in the middle area of the test field) was recorded in the presence of different \"guiding rats\" (placed in the side area of the test field). The experiment was divided into 5 groups: unguided group (UG, no guiding rats in the side area), normal SD rats guiding group (NG), AD rats guiding group (ADG), AD rats guiding group with memantine administration (ADMG), and the Ultrasonic Vocalizations Guiding Group (USVsG, an animal ultrasonic sound player was used to broadcast the USVs). Additionally, the escape latency results of the Morris water maze test, a commonly used cognitive evaluation task in AD rats, were compared and correlated with the drinking behavior results — the core hypothesis here was to verify whether the drinking behavior method established in this study could serve as a valid tool for assessing AD behavioral phenotypes, consistent with the evaluation effect of the traditional Morris water maze. 2) USV characteristics of SD rats, AD rats, and memantine-administered AD rats were recorded and analyzed separately.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Compared with the UG, the NG had more drinking bouts in the sugar area and fewer in the chili area. In contrast, the ADG showed the opposite trend vs. NG, indicating impaired social information transmission in AD rats. For USVs, normal SD rats had environment-specific frequency differentiation: dominant high-frequency USVs in sugar-water and low-frequency ones in chili-water, while AD rats had disorganized USV frequency bands. After memantine intervention, ADMG had enhanced sugar preference, shortened Morris water maze escape latency, and USV frequencies gradually approaching normal SD rats. Moreover, USVsG had no obvious difference in drinking behavior vs. NG, confirming USVs as the core medium of social guidance.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This study reveals AD rats' abnormal USV characteristics, preliminarily lays an experimental basis for an evaluation method combining USVs and drinking behavior, provides a new non-invasive, low-cost perspective for assessing AD rats' behavioral phenotypes, and verifies this method correlates with traditional cognitive evaluation (Morris water maze) and can effectively reflect the improvement of AD behavioral phenotypes after memantine intervention.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 105311"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145647203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Application of a novel adjusting-concentration schedule to compare the reinforcing effectiveness of sucrose and fructose","authors":"C.M. Bradshaw","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105309","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105309","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An adjusting-concentration schedule is described, in which rats made choices between a fructose solution of fixed concentration (<em>c</em>_B) and a sucrose solution the concentration of which (<em>c</em>_A) was adjusted in successive blocks of trials according to the rat’s preference in the preceding block. If the rat showed preference for fructose in block <em>n</em>, <em>c</em>_A was increased by 20 % in block <em>n</em> + 1; if the rat preferred sucrose in block <em>n</em>, <em>c</em>_A was reduced by 20 % in block <em>n</em> + 1. The concentration of sucrose in the final five of fifteen sessions was taken as the indifference concentration of sucrose (<em>c</em>_A(50)). <em>c</em>_B was varied across successive phases of the experiment, between 200 and 800 mM, and the resulting values of <em>c</em>_A(50) were measured. An equation derived from the Multiplicative Hyperbolic Model of reinforcer value (MHM) was used to analyse the relation between <em>c</em>_B and <em>c</em>_A(50). The concentration ratio (<em>c</em>_B/<em>c</em>_A(50)) was significantly greater than unity at all values of <em>c</em>_B, there being no significant deviation of the slope of the relation between <em>c</em>_B/<em>c</em>_A(50) and <em>c</em>_B from zero. The results suggest that rats prefer sucrose to fructose across a broad range of concentrations, but the asymptotes of the conventration/value functions of sucrose and fructose are similar.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 105309"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145595536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Witnessing others interact with a novel object has sex- and size-specific effects on neophilia in mosquitofish","authors":"Angela J. Barbosa,&nbsp;Katie E. McGhee","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105308","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105308","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Dealing with novelty can be challenging for animals. Approaching unfamiliar objects and environments allows individuals to discover and exploit new food sources and habitats, but novelty can also be dangerous and expose individuals to unfamiliar predators or toxic foods. Observing how others react to novel objects can enable an individual to indirectly assess the risks or benefits associated with particular objects without putting themselves directly in harm’s way via social transmission of information. Using the western mosquitofish (<em>Gambusia affinis</em>), we first manipulated whether individuals either witnessed a group of conspecifics interacting with a novel object in a beaker (shoal treatment) or witnessed the novel object alone in an empty beaker (alone treatment). Following this exposure, individuals then encountered that same object on their own and we measured how quickly they approached the object. We found that the effect of witnessing a group encounter a novel object depended on the sex and size of the focal individual. Seeing a group around a novel object caused males and similarly small-sized females to approach the object more quickly when they encountered it on their own later, compared to seeing the novel object without surrounding conspecifics. In contrast, large females were willing to approach the object regardless of the social context under which they had first encountered it. Sex, body size, and/or personality differences might affect the benefits of the social context and determine whether conspecifics attract individuals to a novel object.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 105308"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145581671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influence of RFID tags on Melipona quadrifasciata behavior: Effects on locomotion and food choice","authors":"Rebeca Emanuelle da Silva Castor ,&nbsp;Rafaela Tadei ,&nbsp;Paulo de Souza ,&nbsp;Elaine Cristina Mathias da Silva ,&nbsp;Rogério Hartung Toppa","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105310","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105310","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The use of technology as a tool for evaluating insect behavior provides significant advantages to researchers, as it increases the amount of collected data, reduces observer bias, and minimizes the time and effort required for direct field observations. However, when incorporating technology into research methodologies, it is crucial to ensure that the tool does not alter the natural behavior of the studied individuals. In recent years, the use of radiofrequency electronic identification (RFID) to monitor bees has increased significantly. Yet, little is known about its potential effects on bee behavior, mainly in stingless bees. To assess the influence of electronic tags, we evaluated locomotion parameters and foraging choices by comparing feeders with and without the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid in the stingless bee <em>Melipona quadrifasciata</em> under laboratory conditions using video tracking. Whereas the presence of electronic tags did not affect the food choice as measured by the frequency of bee visits to contaminated versus uncontaminated food sources, it did influence locomotion. Tagged bees exhibited reduced average speed, lower rotation frequency, shorter distances traveled, and altered arena exploration patterns. These behavioral modifications observed in laboratory conditions highlight important considerations for applying RFID technology in field studies monitoring bee behavior.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 105310"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145581678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influence of familiarity and sex on social learning in a group living fish","authors":"Grace Ogundeji ,&nbsp;Elias Latchem ,&nbsp;Sigal Balshine","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105307","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105307","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social learning, learning via observation and imitation, is an ability that can help animals adapt to their environment. Current research indicates that familiarity between the demonstrator and learner increases the likelihood that animals engage in social learning. Sex differences in philopatry can result in the more philopatric sex having a higher degree of familiarity with its groupmates than the dispersing sex. The aim of this study was to test how familiarity and sex affect social learning in the matrilineal, group-living cichlid species, <em>Neolamprologus pulcher</em>. A foraging assay was used to test the probability and speed of social learning in <em>N. pulcher</em>, and whether these were influenced by familiarity with the demonstrator, the demonstrator’s sex, or the observer’s sex. We found that familiarity did not have a clear effect on <em>N. pulcher</em> learning. Although demonstrator sex had no impact on learning, female <em>N. pulcher</em> learned faster than their male counterparts. As one of the first experimental studies to examine the factors influencing social learning in social cichlid fish<em>,</em> here we build upon the existing body of literature on fish learning and explore how information spreads in groups. Such knowledge can shed light on the behaviours, as well as the dynamics, and transmission of cultural traits in cichlids and other animals, contributing to the growing understanding of decision-making and the cognition underlying cooperation in other taxa.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 105307"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145562448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Plasticity in sex roles and female competition in Neotropical dung roller beetles","authors":"Maria J. Albo ,&nbsp;Patricia González-Vainer","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105306","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105306","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Numerous studies show that sex roles can be plastic, and different eco-evolutionary scenarios yield sexual selection also acting on females. Plastic sex roles can occur in response to environmental cues, such as when food and mate resources are limited. In dung roller beetles, the encounter of sexes occurs at the food source; males are commonly reported cutting, forming balls and attracting females. Intrasexual competition has been particularly associated with fights for mate acquisition among males, while females heavily invest in parental care. Here, we test the hypothesis that females have high motivation to compete for balls and mates due to the striking relevance of gaining fertilizations before nesting. This competition is expected to be more intense when the operational sex ratio is biased, affecting behaviors related to ball acquisition (ball production and fights for ball possession) and access to mates (male-female pair formation, courtship and mating). We used the Neotropical dung roller beetle <em>Canthon bispinus</em> and exposed males and females to two experimental groups differing in the operational sex ratio: Female and Male Bias group. We examined the proportion of successful trials for females and males. We found that males were very active in food search in both groups, while fighting with each other in the Male Bias group. In contrast, females became highly competitive, actively engaging in ball rolling and fights in the Female Bias group. Our findings revealed an elevated competition for mates at the food source and that sexual selection may also operate on females in dung roller beetles.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 105306"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145538899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Behavioural plasticity in a solitary foraging ant: Effect of experience and food distribution","authors":"Maria Eduarda Lima Vieira ,&nbsp;Stéphane Chameron ,&nbsp;Heiko G. Rödel ,&nbsp;Arrilton Araújo ,&nbsp;Nicolas Châline","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105305","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105305","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To deal with the unpredictability of available food resources, animals must adjust their behaviour to optimise foraging efficiency. Various mechanisms influence food acquisition behaviour, and our knowledge of their combined impact on foraging efficiency often remains limited. In this study, we conducted laboratory experiments with seven colonies of the solitary foraging ant <em>Dinoponera quadriceps</em>. We observed the behaviour of foragers in an experimental set-up where ten food items were provided either in aggregated or dispersed distributions. Individual participation was voluntary (i.e., ants were free to enter or not the experimental arena), allowing us to assess internal processes like motivation for foraging. We recorded, across repeated trials, foraging activity and exploratory behaviour as proxies for foraging motivation, and success as a measure of efficiency. We found that foragers were highly efficient (retrieving food in 77.38 % of the trips), especially when exploiting aggregated and abundant food resources. Individual foraging success increased with higher exploration, which was more intense in environments displaying larger numbers of dispersed prey items. Individual activity was higher with more experience and in smaller colonies with fewer foragers. On the other hand, success declined when more conspecific foragers were present. Furthermore, foragers and colonies exhibited low but consistent differences in levels of activity, exploration, and success rates. These findings provide a comprehensive view of how different factors combine to give rise to complex behaviours such as foraging. Additionally, they emphasise the importance of individual traits for effective task performance within social groups, an understudied topic.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 105305"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145534468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A psychological model of the cognitive processes regulating exploratory behavior in animals","authors":"Wojciech Pisula","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105303","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105303","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article proposes a conceptual model of animal exploratory behavior that integrates principles from modular cognition and affordance theory. Recognizing a gap between empirical data and theoretical frameworks in comparative psychology, the model aims to clarify how animals process environmental stimuli and engage in information-seeking behaviors. It distinguishes between fixed action patterns, novelty-driven exploration, and affordance-seeking, highlighting the cognitive mechanisms underlying each. Central to the model is a system that integrates modules, such as key-stimulus detection, novelty detection, and affordance analysis, each functioning as an autonomous yet interconnected unit. These modules mediate behavioral responses through sequential decision making influenced by internal drives and environmental affordances. The paper emphasizes the model’s empirical testability and relevance across species, linking behavioral flexibility to evolutionary adaptation and environmental complexity. By integrating sensory, cognitive, and motivational components, the model contributes to understanding how animals adaptively regulate exploratory actions. This approach supports the development of experimentally verifiable hypotheses and bridges cognitive, ecological, and ethological perspectives. Moreover, the model provides a robust framework for comparative and general psychology, offering insights into the evolution and architecture of cognition across species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 105303"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145519114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Chronic social defeat stress induces context avoidance in mice","authors":"Diego Cardozo Mascarenhas ,&nbsp;Jeimmy Marion Penagos-Gil ,&nbsp;Nathalia Santos-Costa ,&nbsp;Ricardo Luiz Nunes-de-Souza","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105304","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105304","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The scrutiny of social anxiety symptoms is necessary to overcome the obstacles encountered when managing this condition. Thus, it is important to study a new behavioral repertoire elicited by chronic social defeat stress (SDS), a social stressor, applied in a place conditioned fear protocol. In this study, we sought to develop a protocol that induced context avoidance after chronic SDS. Accordingly, the mice were re-exposed to an interaction apparatus (IA) to which they had been previously habituated. Between habituation and re-exposure phases, the mice were subjected to aggressive (stressed) or non-aggressive (control) encounters performed either in the IA (Exp. 1) or in a different apparatus (named social interaction box [SIB] – Exp. 2). To behaviorally assess this protocol, the mice were recorded based on spatiotemporal measures (frequency of entry and time spent in the home cage, tunnel, and surface [where the encounter took place] of the IA) and complementary measures (e.g., frequency of stretch-attend posture [SAP], rearing, and grooming). The results showed that defeated animals spent less time in the surface of the IA during the re-exposure phase as compared to the control group (Exp.1) or to conspecifics defeated elsewhere (Exp.2). In addition, these animals also presented increased number of risk assessment behavior (higher frequency of SAP) during the re-exposure phase, in comparison with its control group and mice defeated in the SIB. This shows an unprecedented place-dependent SDS-induced context avoidance. Taken together, the present study offers a relatively simple protocol capable of eliciting context avoidance induced by chronic SDS. It accounts for a novel behavioral repertoire that might be further explored within the scope of social affective disorders.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 105304"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145530409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Resurgence of negatively reinforced behavior in rats","authors":"Joshua B. Hiltz ,&nbsp;Timothy A. Shahan","doi":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105302","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105302","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Resurgence is an increase in a previously reinforced and subsequently extinguished target behavior following a worsening of conditions for a more recently reinforced alternative behavior. Despite extensive research on resurgence, there have been no demonstrations of the phenomenon with a negatively reinforced behavior in an animal model. This gap is notable because avoidance and escape behaviors are among the most prevalent functions of severe problem behavior in clinical settings. The present study provided the first demonstration of resurgence of a negatively reinforced behavior, specifically resurgence of avoidance, in an animal model. In Phase 1, target-lever presses of rats could avoid signaled shock. In Phase 2, the target lever was placed on extinction and signaled shock could then be avoided via an alternative lever. In Phase 3, both levers were placed on extinction while the warning signal and shock continued to occur. Resurgence was observed in all subjects with several rats exhibiting a persistent, robust effect. These findings establish an experimental animal model of resurgence of negatively reinforced behavior, extend basic research on relapse beyond positive reinforcement, and provide a foundation for evaluating strategies to mitigate resurgence of avoidance and escape in clinically relevant contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8746,"journal":{"name":"Behavioural Processes","volume":"233 ","pages":"Article 105302"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145511599","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}