Biologia futura最新文献

Dogs are the earliest domesticated species which still live alongside humans in unprecedented numbers. While various aspects of their socio-cognition have been shown to have adapted to the human environment during domestication, evidence on language comprehension is contradicting and inconclusive. In this review article, in an attempt to answer the hypothetical question: "Do dogs understand human language?" I try to summarize all recent behavioural, neurocognitive, as well as anecdotal reports we have on language comprehension in dogs. I assess the contradictions, suggest a set of possible explanations, and propose a new, systematic and more naturalistic approach to consolidate anecdotal and neuroimaging evidence with behavioural evidence.

Social status plays a crucial role in shaping interactions. Despite its broad significance, research on status hierarchies remains largely fragmented across disciplines and results relating to dominance in the field of biology versus results relating to prestige in the field of human sciences are not integrated in a unified framework. In this paper, we examine how dominance and prestige contribute to hierarchical structures, considering both functionalist and critical perspectives on social status, by reviewing empirical findings from primates, human societies, and the dog-human bond. While dominance is a common strategy for establishing status across species, here we argue that prestige-based hierarchies-characterized by social learning and cooperation-are particularly influential in both human and dog-human interactions. We propose extending the dominance-prestige model by introducing the concept of "super-prestige" which describes the dependency-driven relationship between dogs and humans. This perspective challenges traditional dominance-based frameworks and offers a novel approach to understanding interspecies social structures.

This short review appears in a special issue assembled to celebrate the 90th birthday of a Hungarian ethologist, Professor Vilmos Csányi. As such, it includes some autobiographical details specific to that scientist and the author of this review. However, these details also serve an important general message. They exemplify how science, i.e., specifically the use of fish in the analysis of behaviour and brain function progressed from the mid-1970s to the current day. They illuminate how scientists choose their study species, and how this choice influences the research questions one may be able to pose. The review discusses why the zebrafish has become a popular research subject of biology, including behavioural neuroscience. It argues that behavioural analysis should be an integral part of research into the analysis of brain function. It considers the dichotomy between the historical effect of North American behaviourism vs. the legacy of European Nobel laureate ethologists. It demonstrates, through a theoretical example, why merging these two "schools" of thoughts is the appropriate way to conduct behavioural research. It provides a few examples for how combining knowledge of ethology and ecology of the species with systematic laboratory studies may be beneficial. And it presents a brief outlook for the future of fish in biology research.

To better understand the consequences of stress in realistic scenarios, police cadets were tasked with performing a police intervention under differing expectations. One group was led to anticipate a dangerous mission, while the other expected a routine event. In the field, however, both groups faced the same challenging situation. The warned group exhibited strong pre-intervention stress responses, which was minimal in the other group. By contrast, the unwarned group experienced a sudden surge in stress within the first minute of the intervention, as reality clashed with their expectations. A similar sudden stress response by the beginning of the intervention was missing from the warned group. A significant portion of cadets unlawfully attacked suspects, a behavior linked to intense stress displayed at the onset of the intervention. This emotional, illegitimate aggression was driven primarily by the noradrenergic stress response, with no indication of cortisol involvement. Traditional statistical methods (group comparisons, univariate, and multivariate regressions) suggested that psychological traits had little impact compared to acute stress effects. However, machine learning revealed that psychological characteristics-such as those assessed by the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire, Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, Big Five Personality Test, and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-played a crucial role in conjunction with stress responses. Multivariate analyses yielded data similar to those obtained through machine learning, but only when the dependent variables were selected to match those identified as crucial by the latter. These findings highlight the power of machine learning in uncovering complex interactions that traditional methods might overlook.

One of the most striking questions of cognitive ethology is how we got in 50 years from dogs tested as laboratory rats to thick volumes analysing the ethology of family dogs? Due to its shared evolutionary history and developmental environment with humans, the dog was introduced as an inspiring model species of the evolution of human socio-cognitive skills. The human behavioural complex theory provided the conceptual ammunition, and the resulting theoretical framework prioritised the dog, whose social competence was argued to be assembled through convergent evolution, in contrast to homology-based model species. Since then, the dog has been applied as the model of numerous phenomena, such as communicative abilities, attachment, personality, social learning, talent, cooperation/prosocial behaviour, ageing, human psychiatric conditions, language competence, autism spectrum disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Recently, behavioural observations could be connected and complemented with genetic and neural research. The dog model became a great success, though an alternative approach argued that dogs were much better represented by free-ranging than companion dogs in research. Still, revealing countless similarities (and differences) between dog and human behaviours/abilities, and especially how dogs integrate these skills, the dog model offered a novel complementary approach to study the evolution of the human mind. It has helped us understand the processes and mental representations underlying dogs' and humans' functionally analogous behaviour complexes, and guided how this knowledge can be applied even in future translational research. A better understanding of dogs' socio-cognitive abilities is also highly beneficial in itself, as our relationship with them has changed. It is no longer sufficient that they have skilfully adapted to our world; we also strive to make our coexistence more comfortable for them.

Social behaviour-how and why animals interact with conspecifics-varies immensely across the Tree of Life. Group formation, colonial behaviour, mating behaviour and parenting are among the most complex and fascinating forms of social behaviour. To uncover the causes and implications of behaviour, ethologists often adopt Tinbergen's 4-pronged approach to embrace ontological, phylogenetic, neuro-genomic and ecological investigations of behaviour. Using breeding strategies of sexually reproducing animals as main focus, here I overview some of my research group's achievements over the past 35 years. Beyond specific findings, our research led to two major conclusions. First, specialisation into certain research approaches and methodologies is a necessity in science, however, novel insights can often be gained by moving out of the comfort-zone of a particular research field and using the toolkit of a different discipline to answer a salient question. Second, whilst pursuing a particular research question, it is worth keeping an eye on seemingly counterintuitive-or even insignificant-results since these can be the source of unconventional follow-up research potentially leading to discoveries. Taken together, studies of social behaviour will continue to provide a rich source for discoveries in ethology of animals including humans.

The study reported in this paper analysed the effectiveness and acceptability of ethologically inspired expressive behaviours implemented in two distinctively different embodiments of the zoomorphic robots Miro-E and Unitree Go1. It investigated how primary school children attribute intentions and emotions to the two robots, examining the importance of certain body parts in human-robot interactions to convey affective states and express intentions (e.g. ears, tail, and legs). A total of 111 students aged 7-10 years participated in the study in a within-subject design, observing an interaction between each robot and an Experimenter in small groups. Every child observed both robots interacting with an Experimenter in the same scenario following an AB-BA order. After each interaction, a questionnaire was presented to each student individually. Effects of (a) robot embodiment, (b) dog-ownership, and (c) students' age on their perception of the robots, focusing on differences between the two robots' emotionally and intentionally expressive behaviour, were analysed. Results identified significant effects of each independent variable. While the Miro-E robot was identified as expressing emotions better-underlying the importance of affective features such as ears, and a tail-there was no significant difference in children's intention-attribution to the two robots, and Unitree Go1 was selected as the preferred one over Miro-E. Despite the differences both Miro-E and Unitree Go1 reliably conveyed the intended emotions and intentions, providing further evidence for the applicability of the ethorobotics approach. Findings implied that the incorporation of zoomorphic embodiment features to express social signals could expand potential applications of these robots.

The concept of a "talking" dog has long fascinated humans, as presented throughout history in pieces of folklore, literature, and other fields of culture. While speech, as we know, is a uniquely human trait, the evolution of dogs in close proximity to humans has allowed them to develop strategies that facilitate heterospecific communication with us. In this work, we explore the scientific plausibility of enhancing canine vocalisation towards speech-like communication, as Csányi (Bukfenc és Jeromos: hogyan gondolkodnak a kutyák? Vince K, 2001) suggested. Our approach involves a comprehensive overview of the anatomical, cognitive, and evolutionary features of dogs that may relate to speech, as well as describing their role in popular culture and examining novel technological aspects. We also provide an outlook on hypothetical possibilities of a "talking" dog and its possible implications. We conclude that while dogs have acquired remarkable human-directed social and communicative skills, the feasibility and desirability of spoken language in dogs remain questionable. Instead, understanding canine vocal and non-vocal communication within the context of human-animal interaction provides valuable insights into both language evolution and the mechanisms underpinning interspecies cooperation, also providing practical tools for the novel field of ethorobotics.

This review examines modern companion dog keeping from both biological and cultural evolutionary perspectives. Dog keeping is explored as a trait that has evolved from being adaptive, contributing to the survival and prosperity of human populations, to possibly being neutral or even maladaptive in modern contexts on the population level. Currently, many people in Western cultures regard dogs as family members or "fur babies", even though investing money, time, and emotional commitment in them does not directly increase biological fitness. This new kinship can be better understood through a cultural evolution framework, which is compared to the biological (Fisherian) runaway model to understand how human behaviours can evolve beyond their original utility. For future studies, the review proposes exploring whether and how well dogs can be substitutes for human relationships, their impact on human fertility and social networks, who benefits from dog keeping, and for whom keeping a dog is unnecessary or harmful.