Alterations in habituation of the tail flip response in epigean and troglobitic crayfish

Abstract

We demonstrate that the probability of the crayfish, P. clarkii, to tail flip in response to a touch on the dorsal tail fan is dependent on both the size and the behavioral state of the animal. Alterations in the animal's internal physical state, such as when the animal autotomizes its chelipeds, will cause larger-sized animals to tail flip; if they were not autotomized, then no tail flip response would occur. Altering the external environment by removal of water causes small crayfish, which normally habituate slowly, to rapidly habituate. Observation of large adult crayfish in a species, O. australis packardi, one that evolved to live in total cave darkness, revealed that they are more likely to tail flip than are the sighted, adult P. clarkii. Results indicate that the behavioral state of the crayfish can result in rapid and long-term alterations in the tail flip response and in habituation rates to repetitive stimuli. This ability to show plasticity in gain setting may be regulated by neuromodulators and can occur in large adults of the sighted crayfish. Differences between the two species indicate that size may not be the sole contributing factor to account for tail flip behaviors. J. Exp. Zool. 290:163-176, 2001.

Duration of socialization influences responses to a mirror: responses of dominant and subordinate crayfish diverge with time of pairing

“…Vision appears to play an important role in fighting behaviours such as following and lunging (Bruski and Dunham, 1987); however, fighting occurs in the absence of vision (Kellie et al, 2001;Li and Cooper, 2002). Taction appears to be important for striking, pushing and antennae tapping (Bruski and Dunham, 1987).…”

“…It is possible, however, that the responses to the reflective environment might develop sooner and that they might change over time. Others have demonstrated that certain behaviours change with the length of time during which crayfish are socialized (Issa et al, 1999;Kellie et al, 2001;Gherardi and Daniels, 2004).…”

The Effect of Ambient Light on Blind Cave Crayfish: Social Interactions

“…In this species of crayfish, individuals which initially show a submissive behavior rarely switch over to a search or rush mode after an interaction, which suggests that an individual may prefer a particular behavioral state, at least during our observational period. Observations also suggest that the pair member that exhibits the greater exploratory behavior when placed into the novel environment is less likely to tail flip upon initial contact, but this observation has not been fully quantified (Kellie et al, 2001). It would also be of interest to examine social hierarchy behaviors using larger groups of these cave crayfish to index each individual within a group as to the level of assertiveness and submissiveness related to size, weight, and physical activity and exploratory behavior.…”

“…In particular, we looked for the presence or absence of the social display, which is well established in sighted crayfish studies. Previous observations had indicated a behavioral response to white light in this species (Li et al, 2000;Li and Cooper, 2001;Kellie et al, 2001). This study also examined the effect of white light on the behavioral repertoire and dynamics exhibited between pairs of male blind cave crayfish.…”

New insights into the acute actions from a high dosage of fluoxetine on neuronal and cardiac function: Drosophila, crayfish and rodent models

“…Fluoxetine (Prozac) is a 52 commonly used medication for altering mood and the therapeutic (Li et al, 2002). Tail flip and behavioral responses were performed as previously de-155 scribed (Kellie et al, 2001;Sparks et al, 2003;Pagé et al, 2007). Concen-156 trated fluoxetine solution was injected into the animal (Listerman et al, 2000).…”