Blueprints for measuring natural behavior

Puścian, Alicja; Knapska, Ewelina

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104635

Cited by 12 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 145 publications

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“…Most of these tests rely on creating artificial situations in order to measure the corresponding behavioral outcome. It is an open question as to whether the social behavior measured in such tests can predict the social behavior under more natural conditions that include complex social interactions [68]. Our comparison with the results of pairwise social interest behavioral assays highlights the need for further work in this area.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The great majority of our neuroscientific understanding of social behavior comes from dyadic interactions and reduced forms of social interactions [26,[70][71][72]. In light of the expanding interest in the neuroscience of natural social behavior [68], going beyond basic social testing paradigms and static characterizations of social hierarchy lends the opportunity to unravel a richer repertoire of neural mechanisms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long-term tracking of social structure in groups of rats

Nagy

Davidson

Vásárhelyi

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The social structure of an animal group controls how members interact, and affects nearly every aspect of an individual's behavior with others. Rodents are a model system for studying both individual and social behavior, and social status such as dominance affects access to mating opportunities and food resources. However, it is not known how individual behavioral patterns interact to generate the overall social structure of a group, and how individual social positions within a group change over time. In this study, we employ long-term tracking to demonstrate that individual social status and group social structure are emergent outcomes of interactions among group members, which are not simply predicted by individual traits or previous behavioral patterns. Using quantitative measures to describe individual behavior and group social structure, we demonstrate that although individuals maintain established behavioral patterns and social positions within a given group, behavioral routines shift when group composition is changed. A comparison demonstrates that traditional individual and pairwise tests for boldness, and social interest are inadequate for describing or predicting actual behavioral outcomes in a group setting.These results emphasize the context-dependence of social behavior as an emergent property of interactions within a group, and highlight the need to measure and quantify social behavior in naturalistic settings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term tracking of social structure in groups of rats

Nagy

Davidson

Vásárhelyi

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Accurately quantifying animal behavior is important for understanding how behavioral adaptations evolve and influence the fitness and survival of a species. However, human presence can obscure natural behaviors (Sorge et al, 2014; Puścian & Knapska, 2022) and remote cameras bypass the need for physical presence of the researcher. Remote camera approaches are used to study behavior at the population (Tape & Gustine, 2014; Jachowski et al, 2015; Buchholz et al,.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Home security cameras as a tool for behavior observations and science affordability

Goolsby

Fischer

Pareja-Mejía

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Reliably capturing transient animal behavior in the field and laboratory remains a logistical and financial challenge, especially for small ectotherms. Here, we present a camera system that is affordable, accessible, and suitable to monitor small, cold-blooded animals historically overlooked by commercial camera traps, such as small amphibians. The system is weather-resistant, can operate offline or online, and allows collection of time-sensitive behavioral data in laboratory and field conditions with continuous data storage for up to four weeks. The lightweight camera can also utilize phone notifications over Wi-Fi so that observers can be alerted when animals enter a space of interest, enabling sample collection at proper time periods. We present our findings, both technological and scientific, in an effort to elevate tools that enable researchers to maximize use of their research budgets. We discuss the relative affordability of our system for researchers in South America, which is home to the largest population of ectotherm diversity.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Food restriction has also been shown to fundamentally change physiology and brain function, which may impinge on our neural circuits of interest in an unknown way (Bubenik et al, 1992). There is a growing push towards the use of ethological, evolutionarily-conserved behaviours as a focal point of behavioural tasks, and may be of particular value where self-driven behaviours are the focus of the study (Puścian and Knapska, 2022). By utilising spontaneous, intrinsically rewarding behaviours, we can potentially obtain robust, reliable responses in more complex environments without the need to externally modulate motivational state via food restriction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validation of a non-appetitive effort-based foraging task as a measure of motivational state in male mice

Xeni,

Marangoni,

Jackson

2023

Preprint

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Motivational disorders such as apathy syndrome are highly prevalent across neurological disorders but do not yet have an agreed treatment approach. The use of translational behavioural models can provide a route through which to meaningfully screen novel drug targets. Methods that utilise food deprivation in contrived environments may lack the sensitivity to detect deficits in self-initiated or self-driven behaviour. Animals monitored in more naturalistic environments may display more ethologically-relevant behaviours of greater translational value. Here, we aimed to validate a novel, non-appetitive effort-based foraging task as a measure of motivational state in mice. In this task, the mouse can freely choose to exert effort to forage bedding material and shuttle it back to a safe and enclosed environment. The amount of bedding material foraged is used as a readout of motivational state. Acute dopaminergic modulation with haloperidol, amphetamine and methylphenidate, and two phenotypic models known to induce motivational deficits (healthy ageing and chronic administration of corticosterone) were used to validate this task. Consistent with other effort-based decision-making tasks we find that foraging behaviour is sensitive to acute modulation of dopaminergic transmission. We find that both phenotypic models induce differing deficits in various aspects of foraging behaviour suggesting that the task may be used to parse different behavioural profiles from distinct disease phenotypes. Thus, without requiring extended training periods or physiological deprivation, this task may represent a refined and translational preclinical measure of motivation.

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Blueprints for measuring natural behavior

Cited by 12 publications

References 145 publications

Long-term tracking of social structure in groups of rats

Long-term tracking of social structure in groups of rats

Home security cameras as a tool for behavior observations and science affordability

Validation of a non-appetitive effort-based foraging task as a measure of motivational state in male mice

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