Rituals, stereotypy and compulsive behavior in animals and humans

Eilam, David; Zor, Rama; Szechtman, Henry; Hermesh, Haggai

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.08.003

Cited by 116 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Thus, physical evidence left by the expression of certain abnormal behaviour seems to be indicative of the individual's welfare state. This is not surprising given that such marks accumulate over time and the more an animal expresses a particular behaviour the greater the probability that it will leave distinctive physical marks [3,17]. Thus, these marks permit us to dig into the individual's welfare history.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid animal welfare assessment: an archaeological approach

Schork

Young

2014

Biol. Lett.

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The welfare of an individual depends on its capacity to overcome suboptimal conditions in its environment; otherwise, its physical and psychological health becomes compromised. A situation that clearly indicates lack of control of the environment is the expression of abnormal behaviours, such as stereotypies. This study aimed to verify the well-being of police horses using a new rapid form of welfare assessment: an archaeological approach. To this end, we sampled and quantified marks found on the stables, deposited as a result of abnormal behaviour. We cross-referenced these physical marks with veterinary records of diseases, such as colic, known to be associated with stress. A total of 46 horses were sampled and the results showed a significant medium-strength, positive correlation between bite mark frequency on stable doors and the incidence of colic. A weak significant positive correlation was found between length of scratch marks (from pawing) and the incidence of lameness. We conclude that these marks reflect the accumulated expression of abnormal behaviour and can provide rapid insight into the welfare of individual animals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid animal welfare assessment: an archaeological approach

Schork

Young

2014

Biol. Lett.

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“…For all preparations, the injection of Ϫ5 nA into B63 completely suppressed motor pattern genesis (A-C, bottom). stereotyped yet ultimately unsuccessful (i.e., unrewarded) behavior that also dominates other motor actions shares essential features with the elevated and automatically recurring motor acts in the compulsive behavior patterns of other animals (Pitman, 1989;Serruya and Eilam, 1996;Eilam et al, 2006). The compulsion to act has been described in a variety of nonpathological goal-directed behaviors, including feeding and sexual behavior and often results from persistent changes in a specific component of a subject's behavior after an associative reward stimulus has been withdrawn Berridge, 2000, 2001;Joel and Avisar, 2001;Belozertseva et al, 2004;Joel et al, 2005).…”

Section: Operant Conditioning and Induction Of Compulsive-like Feedinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral andIn VitroCorrelates of Compulsive-Like Food Seeking Induced by Operant Conditioning inAplysia

Nargeot¹,

Petrissans²,

Simmers³

2007

J. Neurosci.

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Motivated behaviors comprise appetitive actions whose occurrence results partly from an internally driven incentive to act. Such impulsive behavior can also be regulated by external rewarding stimuli that, through learning processes, can lead to accelerated and seemingly automatic, compulsive-like recurrences of the rewarded act. Here, we explored such behavioral plasticity in Aplysia by analyzing how appetitive reward stimulation in a form of operant conditioning can modify a goal-directed component of the animal's food-seeking behavior. In naive animals, protraction/retraction cycles of the tongue-like radula are expressed sporadically with highly variable interbite intervals. In contrast, animals that were previously given a food-reward stimulus in association with each spontaneous radula bite now expressed movement cycles with an elevated frequency and a stereotyped rhythmic organization. This rate increase and regularization, which was retained for several hours after training, depended on both the reward quality and its contingency because accelerated, stereotyped biting was not induced in animals that had previously received a less-palatable food stimulus or had been subjected to nonassociative reward stimulation. Neuronal correlates of these learning-induced changes were also expressed in the radula motor pattern-generating circuitry of isolated buccal ganglia. In such in vitro preparations, moreover, manipulation of the burst frequency of the bilateral motor pattern-initiating B63 interneurons indicated that the regularization of radula motor pattern generation in contingently trained animals occurred separately from an increase in cycle rate, thereby suggesting independent processes of network plasticity. These data therefore suggest that operant conditioning can induce compulsive-like actions in Aplysia feeding behavior and provide a substrate for a cellular analysis of the underlying mechanisms.

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“…In fact, a specific part of the brain, the basal ganglia, is vital to the mastery and execution of repetitive actions and skills and formation of habits (Graybiel 2000). Persistent, repetitive actions are diagnosed as stereotypies when they interfere with normal activity and cause physical damage either to the animal itself or its surroundings (Dallaire 1993;Eilam et al 2006;Serruya and Eilam 1996). Individual animals may show different stereotypies in the same environment, whereas others may not develop any at all.…”

Section: Stereotypies In Nonhuman Primatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stereotypies in Captive Primates and the Use of Inositol: Lessons from Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder in Humans

Fam

Tan²,

Waitt

2012

Int J Primatol

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Animal stereotypies have long been used in the study of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in humans. These studies have led to the understanding of some of the molecular pathways in the disorder and the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and myo-inositol in the treatment of these conditions. If animal models, especially nonhuman primate models, were used to study human disorders and if the resulting treatments were successful, then conversely one should be able to treat nonhuman primate stereotypies with similar methods. We here summarize animal models of OCD (including nonhuman primate models) and human OCD treatments, and using successful human treatment by myo-inositol as models, recommend the use of myo-inositol in good captive management practice and the treatment of nonhuman primate stereotypies. We believe that this would be particularly useful in the treatment of stereotypies in nonhuman primates because they are physiologically so similar to humans.

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Rituals, stereotypy and compulsive behavior in animals and humans

Cited by 116 publications

References 55 publications

Rapid animal welfare assessment: an archaeological approach

Rapid animal welfare assessment: an archaeological approach

Behavioral andIn VitroCorrelates of Compulsive-Like Food Seeking Induced by Operant Conditioning inAplysia

Stereotypies in Captive Primates and the Use of Inositol: Lessons from Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder in Humans

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