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Tjøstheim TA, Johansson B, Balkenius C. Direct Approach or Detour: A Comparative Model of Inhibition and Neural Ensemble Size in Behavior Selection. Front Syst Neurosci 2021; 15:752219. [PMID: 34899200 PMCID: PMC8660104 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2021.752219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2021] [Accepted: 09/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Organisms must cope with different risk/reward landscapes in their ecological niche. Hence, species have evolved behavior and cognitive processes to optimally balance approach and avoidance. Navigation through space, including taking detours, appears also to be an essential element of consciousness. Such processes allow organisms to negotiate predation risk and natural geometry that obstruct foraging. One aspect of this is the ability to inhibit a direct approach toward a reward. Using an adaptation of the well-known detour paradigm in comparative psychology, but in a virtual world, we simulate how different neural configurations of inhibitive processes can yield behavior that approximates characteristics of different species. Results from simulations may help elucidate how evolutionary adaptation can shape inhibitive processing in particular and behavioral selection in general. More specifically, results indicate that both the level of inhibition that an organism can exert and the size of neural populations dedicated to inhibition contribute to successful detour navigation. According to our results, both factors help to facilitate detour behavior, but the latter (i.e., larger neural populations) appears to specifically reduce behavioral variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Trond A Tjøstheim
- Department of Philosophy, Lund University Cognitive Science, Lund, Sweden
| | - Birger Johansson
- Department of Philosophy, Lund University Cognitive Science, Lund, Sweden
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Khaldy L, Tocco C, Byrne M, Dacke M. Compass Cue Integration and Its Relation to the Visual Ecology of Three Tribes of Ball-Rolling Dung Beetles. INSECTS 2021; 12:insects12060526. [PMID: 34204081 PMCID: PMC8229028 DOI: 10.3390/insects12060526] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2021] [Revised: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
To guide their characteristic straight-line orientation away from the dung pile, ball-rolling dung beetles steer according to directional information provided by celestial cues, which, among the most relevant are the sun and polarised skylight. Most studies regarding the use of celestial cues and their influence on the orientation system of the diurnal ball-rolling beetle have been performed on beetles of the tribe Scarabaeini living in open habitats. These beetles steer primarily according to the directional information provided by the sun. In contrast, Sisyphus fasciculatus, a species from a different dung-beetle tribe (the Sisyphini) that lives in habitats with closely spaced trees and tall grass, relies predominantly on directional information from the celestial pattern of polarised light. To investigate the influence of visual ecology on the relative weight of these cues, we studied the orientation strategy of three different tribes of dung beetles (Scarabaeini, Sisyphini and Gymnopleurini) living within the same biome, but in different habitat types. We found that species within a tribe share the same orientation strategy, but that this strategy differs across the tribes; Scarabaeini, living in open habitats, attribute the greatest relative weight to the directional information from the sun; Sisyphini, living in closed habitats, mainly relies on directional information from polarised skylight; and Gymnopleurini, also living in open habitats, appear to weight both cues equally. We conclude that, despite exhibiting different body size, eye size and morphology, dung beetles nevertheless manage to solve the challenge of straight-line orientation by weighting visual cues that are particular to the habitat in which they are found. This system is however dynamic, allowing them to operate equally well even in the absence of the cue given the greatest relative weight by the particular species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lana Khaldy
- Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62 Lund, Sweden; (C.T.); (M.D.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Claudia Tocco
- Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62 Lund, Sweden; (C.T.); (M.D.)
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witswatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa;
| | - Marcus Byrne
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witswatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa;
| | - Marie Dacke
- Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62 Lund, Sweden; (C.T.); (M.D.)
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witswatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa;
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Beardsworth CE, Whiteside MA, Laker PR, Nathan R, Orchan Y, Toledo S, van Horik JO, Madden JR. Is habitat selection in the wild shaped by individual-level cognitive biases in orientation strategy? Ecol Lett 2021; 24:751-760. [PMID: 33616308 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2019] [Revised: 10/26/2020] [Accepted: 12/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive biases for encoding spatial information (orientation strategies) in relation to self (egocentric) or landmarks (allocentric) differ between species or populations according to the habitats they occupy. Whether biases in orientation strategy determine early habitat selection or if individuals adapt their biases following experience is unknown. We determined orientation strategies of pheasants, Phasianus colchicus, using a dual-strategy maze with an allocentric probe trial, before releasing them (n = 20) into a novel landscape, where we monitored their movement and habitat selection. In general, pheasants selected for woodland over non-woodland habitat, but allocentric-biased individuals exhibited weaker avoidance of non-woodland habitat, where we expected allocentric navigation to be more effective. Sex did not influence selection but was associated with speed and directional persistence in non-woodland habitat. Our results suggest that an individual's habitat selection is associated with inherent cognitive bias in early life, but it is not yet clear what advantages this may offer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine E Beardsworth
- Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK
| | - Mark A Whiteside
- Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK
| | - Philippa R Laker
- Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK
| | - Ran Nathan
- Movement Ecology Laboratory, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, Edmond J. Safra Campus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel
| | - Yotam Orchan
- Movement Ecology Laboratory, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, Edmond J. Safra Campus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel
| | - Sivan Toledo
- Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 67798, Israel
| | - Jayden O van Horik
- Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK
| | - Joah R Madden
- Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK
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Liu Y, Jones CD, Day LB, Summers K, Burmeister SS. Cognitive Phenotype and Differential Gene Expression in a Hippocampal Homologue in Two Species of Frog. Integr Comp Biol 2020; 60:1007-1023. [DOI: 10.1093/icb/icaa032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
SynopsisThe complexity of an animal’s interaction with its physical and/or social environment is thought to be associated with behavioral flexibility and cognitive phenotype, though we know little about this relationship in amphibians. We examined differences in cognitive phenotype in two species of frog with divergent natural histories. The green-and-black poison frog (Dendrobates auratus) is diurnal, displays enduring social interactions, and uses spatially distributed resources during parental care. Túngara frogs (Physalaemus=Engystomops pustulosus) are nocturnal, express only fleeting social interactions, and use ephemeral puddles to breed in a lek-type mating system. Comparing performance in identical discrimination tasks, we find that D. auratus made fewer errors when learning and displayed greater behavioral flexibility in reversal learning tasks than túngara frogs. Further, túngara frogs preferred to learn beacons that can be used in direct guidance whereas D. auratus preferred position cues that could be used to spatially orient relative to the goal. Behavioral flexibility and spatial cognition are associated with hippocampal function in mammals. Accordingly, we examined differential gene expression in the medial pallium, the amphibian homolog of the hippocampus. Our preliminary data indicate that genes related to learning and memory, synaptic plasticity, and neurogenesis were upregulated in D. auratus, while genes related to apoptosis were upregulated in túngara frogs, suggesting that these cellular processes could contribute to the differences in behavioral flexibility and spatial learning we observed between poison frogs and túngara frogs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuxiang Liu
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Corbin D Jones
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- Department of Genetics, Integrative Program for Biological & Genome Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Lainy B Day
- Department of Biology, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS 38677, USA
| | - Kyle Summers
- Biology Department, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA
| | - Sabrina S Burmeister
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
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Kamran M, Moore ME, Fisher AM, Moore PA. Examination of Homing Behaviors in Two Species of Crayfish Following Translational Displacements. Integr Org Biol 2019; 1:obz008. [PMID: 33791524 PMCID: PMC7671143 DOI: 10.1093/iob/obz008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Crayfish have been model systems for examining complex behaviors and the underlying neural mechanisms that guide these behaviors. While spatial learning has been examined in a subset of crayfish species, homing behaviors remained largely unexamined. Here we examined homing behavior following translational displacements in a primary burrowing (Creaserinus fodiens) and tertiary burrowing species (Faxonius rusticus). Individuals of both species were placed in an arena with artificial burrows embedded within the arena floor. The arena floor was fitted with a panel, which served as a treadmill belt to allow for translational displacement. Individuals were displaced after they had left the burrows. The movement pathways of displaced crayfish were compared with those in two control groups, one which underwent no displacement and the second in which the treadmill belt was displaced but returned to its original position almost immediately. Homing success for displaced individuals of both species was considerably reduced in comparison to the control groups. Moreover, displaced primary burrowers had significantly lower homing success in comparison to displaced tertiary burrowers. Primary burrowers exhibited greater homing error and significantly impaired homing behaviors compared with tertiary burrowers. Furthermore, heading angles in displaced groups (of both species) were significantly higher than the control group of both species. Species-specific differences in homing success and homing error indicate that primary burrowers were more negatively impacted by translational displacements. These homing differences indicate that these two species of crayfish have differing homing strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maryam Kamran
- Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97330, USA
| | - Meghan E Moore
- Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA
| | - Andrea M Fisher
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Florida St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, USA
| | - Paul A Moore
- J.P. Scott Center for Neuroscience, Mind & Behavior, Departments of Biological Sciences and Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA.,Laboratory for Sensory Ecology, Department of Biological Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA
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Abstract
Previous studies have demonstrated that animals use both environmental cues and egocentric information when orienting in mazes or nature. These two strategies have been examined separately in some species, yielding information on the specific properties associated with each. We examined spatial learning in crayfish (Orconectes rusticus) using an apparatus that required animals to orient under four different conditions: using egocentric (response) cues alone, response cues with inconsistent external (place) cues present, place cues with inconsistent response cues present, and place cues with consistent response cues present. Results demonstrated that crayfish could successfully learn a maze task using response cues alone and when external visual and tactile cues provided inconsistent information. Animals were markedly less successful at learning the task using place cues while disregarding inconsistent response information. We also found that more animals learned successfully when response and external cues were presented in a redundant format where both cues indicated the correct turn. Finally, we found that some crayfish were able to learn a single reversal when trained using response information alone and when response and external cues were presented in the redundant format. We consider these results in the light of findings from other species, and ideas on learning strategy properties, ecological relevance of strategies, and the possible role of stress coping style in crayfish learning.
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