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Salgirli Demirbas Y, Isparta S, Saral B, Keskin Yılmaz N, Adıay D, Matsui H, Töre-Yargın G, Musa SA, Atilgan D, Öztürk H, Kul BC, Şafak CE, Ocklenburg S, Güntürkün O. Acute and chronic stress alter behavioral laterality in dogs. Sci Rep 2023; 13:4092. [PMID: 36906713 PMCID: PMC10008577 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31213-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 03/08/2023] [Indexed: 03/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Dogs are one of the key animal species in investigating the biological mechanisms of behavioral laterality. Cerebral asymmetries are assumed to be influenced by stress, but this subject has not yet been studied in dogs. This study aims to investigate the effect of stress on laterality in dogs by using two different motor laterality tests: the Kong™ Test and a Food-Reaching Test (FRT). Motor laterality of chronically stressed (n = 28) and emotionally/physically healthy dogs (n = 32) were determined in two different environments, i.e., a home environment and a stressful open field test (OFT) environment. Physiological parameters including salivary cortisol, respiratory rate, and heart rate were measured for each dog, under both conditions. Cortisol results showed that acute stress induction by OFT was successful. A shift towards ambilaterality was detected in dogs after acute stress. Results also showed a significantly lower absolute laterality index in the chronically stressed dogs. Moreover, the direction of the first paw used in FRT was a good predictor of the general paw preference of an animal. Overall, these results provide evidence that both acute and chronic stress exposure can change behavioral asymmetries in dogs.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sevim Isparta
- Biopsychology, Department of Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
| | - Begum Saral
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Nevra Keskin Yılmaz
- Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Deniz Adıay
- Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Hiroshi Matsui
- Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence, and Neuroscience, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Gülşen Töre-Yargın
- Department of Industrial Design, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Saad Adam Musa
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Durmus Atilgan
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Hakan Öztürk
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Bengi Cinar Kul
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - C Etkin Şafak
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Sebastian Ocklenburg
- Biopsychology, Department of Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
- ICAN Institute for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Onur Güntürkün
- Biopsychology, Department of Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
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Rogers LJ. Brain Lateralization and Cognitive Capacity. Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:1996. [PMID: 34359124 PMCID: PMC8300231 DOI: 10.3390/ani11071996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2021] [Revised: 06/26/2021] [Accepted: 06/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
One way to increase cognitive capacity is to avoid duplication of functions on the left and right sides of the brain. There is a convincing body of evidence showing that such asymmetry, or lateralization, occurs in a wide range of both vertebrate and invertebrate species. Each hemisphere of the brain can attend to different types of stimuli or to different aspects of the same stimulus and each hemisphere analyses information using different neural processes. A brain can engage in more than one task at the same time, as in monitoring for predators (right hemisphere) while searching for food (left hemisphere). Increased cognitive capacity is achieved if individuals are lateralized in one direction or the other. The advantages and disadvantages of individual lateralization are discussed. This paper argues that directional, or population-level, lateralization, which occurs when most individuals in a species have the same direction of lateralization, provides no additional increase in cognitive capacity compared to individual lateralization although directional lateralization is advantageous in social interactions. Strength of lateralization is considered, including the disadvantage of being very strongly lateralized. The role of brain commissures is also discussed with consideration of cognitive capacity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lesley J Rogers
- School of Science and Technology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
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Lucon-Xiccato T, Dadda M, Bisazza A. Vegetation cover induces developmental plasticity of lateralization in tadpoles. Curr Zool 2019; 66:393-399. [PMID: 32617087 PMCID: PMC7319465 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoz061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2019] [Accepted: 11/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Lateralization of cognitive functions influences a large number of fitness-related behaviors and shows, in most species, substantial variation in strength and direction. Laboratory works and field data have suggested that this variation is often due to adaptive phenotypic plasticity. Strong lateralization should be favored in some ecological conditions, for example, under high risk of predation. For anuran tadpoles, the presence of cover affects predation risk, with tadpoles being more exposed to predators in environments with reduced cover. We tested the hypothesis that the amount of cover experienced early in life affects lateralization in the edible frog, Pelophylax esculentus, tadpoles. We exposed embryos and larvae to high or low vegetation cover environments. For half of the subjects, the treatment was constant whereas the remaining subjects were switched to the opposite treatment after hatching. In agreement with the theoretical expectation, tadpoles exposed to low vegetation cover for the entire development were more lateralized and showed a stronger alignment in directionality of lateralization compared with tadpoles exposed to high vegetation cover. This indicates a possible role of natural variation in vegetation abundance and developmental plasticity as determinants of between-population and between-individual differences in lateralization. We also found that shifting from high to low vegetation cover treatments and vice versa disrupted lateralization alignment, suggesting that developmental trajectories for this trait are determined at the embryonic stage and need environmental stability to be fully expressed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tyrone Lucon-Xiccato
- Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Via L. Borsari 46, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
| | - Marco Dadda
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 3511, Padova, Italy
| | - Angelo Bisazza
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 3511, Padova, Italy
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Salgirli Demirbas Y, Isparta S, Ozturk H, Safak E, Emre B, Piskin İ, Kaya U, Sagmanligil V, Akgul B, Da Graça Pereira G. Functional cerebral asymmetry in dogs living under different environmental conditions. Behav Processes 2019; 165:4-8. [PMID: 31145966 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2019.05.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2018] [Revised: 04/10/2019] [Accepted: 05/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Investigating the link between stress and functional cerebral asymmetry (FCA) has been a subject of interest in recent years. The demonstration of this link in the field of veterinary medicine is particularly important as measuring FCA has the potential to be an alternative and non-invasive behavioral method to assess stress in dogs. The present study aimed to investigate whether FCA is affected by different environmental conditions in dogs. The main aim of this study was to investigate the changes in FCA in dogs living under different conditions. To this aim, strength and direction of FCA in 40 urban free-ranging dogs were measured by a Kong test. Dogs were divided into four groups considering their environmental conditions: The dogs in Group 1 (n = 8) were rehabilitated urban free ranging dogs, which were kept in enriched shelter conditions. The dogs in Group 2 (n = 9) were adopted free ranging dogs, which lived in home environment for more than 1 year. The dogs in Group 3 (n = 11) were urban free ranging dogs, which stayed in individual cages in a dog shelter for more than 6 months. The dogs in Group 4 (n = 12) were adopted urban free ranging dogs, which stayed in a dog pension for more than 30 days. Considering the length of their stay in a kennel environment, quality of living condition and emotional states, the dogs in Group 3 and 4 were classified as chronically stressed dogs. Statistically significant differences existed between groups considering strength and direction of lateralization. Most of the dogs in Group 1 (87.5 %) and Group 2 (77.8 %) showed significant paw preferences, whereas most of the dogs in the Group 3 (72.7 %) and Group 4 (75 %) were categorized as ambilateral. Considering the individual level asymmetry in dogs and environmental conditions of dogs in Group 3 and 4, one may suggest that high ambilaterality levels is related with chronic stress. Thus, reduced FCA may not be the reason for stress sensibility, rather it can be an outcome of stressful situations. These results are the first to demonstrate the possible link between chronic stress and ambilaterality in dogs.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sevim Isparta
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Hakan Ozturk
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Etkin Safak
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Bahri Emre
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - İlksin Piskin
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ufuk Kaya
- Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Vedat Sagmanligil
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Near East University, Lefkosa, North Cyprus
| | - Betul Akgul
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Gonçalo Da Graça Pereira
- Centro para o Conhecimento Animal, Algés, Portugal; Escola Superior Agrária de Elvas, Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, Elvas, Portugal; Centro de Investigação de Ciência Animal - Instituto de Ciências, Tecnologias e Agroambiente, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
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Cully P, Nielsen B, Lancaster B, Martin J, McGreevy P. The laterality of the gallop gait in Thoroughbred racehorses. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0198545. [PMID: 29883459 PMCID: PMC5993273 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2017] [Accepted: 05/21/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Laterality can be observed as side biases in locomotory behaviour which, in the horse, manifest inter alia as forelimb preferences, most notably in the gallop. The current study investigated possible leading-leg preferences at the population and individual level in Thoroughbred racehorses (n = 2095) making halt-to-gallop transitions. Videos of flat races in the UK (n = 350) were studied to record, for each horse, the lead-leg preference of the initial stride into gallop from the starting stalls. Races from clockwise (C) and anti-clockwise (AC) tracks were chosen alternately at random to ensure equal representation. Course direction, horse age and sex, position relative to the inside rail and finishing position were also noted. On C courses, the left/right ratio was 1.15, which represents a significant bias to the left (z = –2.29, p = 0.022), while on AC courses it was 0.92 (z = 0.51, p = 0.610). In both course directions, there was no significant difference between winning horses that led with the left leading leg versus the right (C courses, z = –1.32, p = 0.19 and AC courses, z = –0.74, p = 0.46). Of the 2,095 horses studied 51.26% led with their L fore and 48.74% with their R, with no statistically significant difference (z = -1.16, p = 0.25). Therefore, there was no evidence of a population level motor laterality. Additionally, 22 male and 22 female horses were randomly chosen for repeated measures of leading leg preference. A laterality index was calculated for each of the 44 horses studied using the repeated measures: 22 exhibited right laterality (of which two were statistically significant) and 21 exhibited left laterality (eight being statistically significant); one horse was ambilateral. Using these data, left lateralized horses were more strongly lateralized on an individual level than the right lateralized horses (t = 2.28, p = 0.03, DF = 34) and mares were more left lateralized than males (t = 2.4, p = 0.03, DF = 19).
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Affiliation(s)
- Paulette Cully
- The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and The Roslin Institute, Easter Bush Campus, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, United Kingdom
| | - Brian Nielsen
- Department of Animal Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Bryony Lancaster
- The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and The Roslin Institute, Easter Bush Campus, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, United Kingdom
| | - Jessica Martin
- The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and The Roslin Institute, Easter Bush Campus, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, United Kingdom
| | - Paul McGreevy
- Sydney School of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- * E-mail:
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Consistency and flexibility in solving spatial tasks: different horses show different cognitive styles. Sci Rep 2017; 7:16557. [PMID: 29185468 PMCID: PMC5707407 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-16729-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2017] [Accepted: 11/16/2017] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Individual animals vary in their behaviour and reactions to novel situations. These differences may extend to differences in cognition among individuals. We tested twenty-six horses for their ability to detour around symmetric and asymmetric obstacles. All of the animals were able to get around the barrier to reach a food target, but varied in their approach. Some horses moved slowly but were more accurate in choosing the shortest way. Other horses acted quickly, consistently detoured in the same direction, and did not reliably choose the shortest way. The remaining horses shifted from a faster, directionally consistent response with the symmetric barrier, to a slower but more accurate response with the asymmetric barrier. The asymmetric barrier induced a reduction in heart rate variability, suggesting that this is a more demanding task. The different approaches used to solve the asymmetric task may reflect distinct cognitive styles in horses, which vary among individuals, and could be linked to different personality traits. Understanding equine behaviour and cognition can inform horse welfare and management.
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Seaver CMS, Hurd PL. Are there consistent behavioral differences between sexes and male color morphs in Pelvicachromis pulcher? ZOOLOGY 2017; 122:115-125. [PMID: 28546067 DOI: 10.1016/j.zool.2017.05.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2016] [Revised: 05/04/2017] [Accepted: 05/04/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Adult sex ratios in the kribensis cichlid (Pelvicachromis pulcher) are influenced by environmental conditions during early development. These environmental sex-determining factors may also organize life-long variation in social behavior within each sex. If this is true, then individual differences in behavior may be, at least in part, expressions of the relative strength of sexual differentiation of that individual. As adults, kribensis males take on one of four alternative color morphs. Males of the yellow morph tend toward breeding monogamously and are produced at higher frequency under female-biasing environmental conditions, while males of the red morph tend more towards breeding polygynously and are produced more frequently by male-biasing early environments. Here we test whether these two alternative kribensis male color morphs show consistent behavioral differences as predicted by an underlying behavioral syndrome of relative feminization to masculinization. We compare these males to females in five different behavioral tests: an aggression assay, an open field exploration task, a novel environment emergence task, and three cerebral lateralization tests. We hypothesize that red males will show more exaggerated sex differences across all behaviors. We find that red males are hypermasculinized as predicted with respect to aggressive behavior and activity levels, but not all behaviors follow this pattern. We find no evidence for a common behavioral syndrome underlying personality traits across females, yellow males and red males.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cheryl M Sedlak Seaver
- Department of Psychology, P217 Biological Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada
| | - Peter L Hurd
- Department of Psychology, P217 Biological Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada; Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, 4-120 Katz Group Centre, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada.
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Gaillard M, Scriba MF, Roulin A. Melanism is related to behavioural lateralization in nestling barn owls. Behav Processes 2017; 140:139-143. [PMID: 28483429 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2017.05.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2017] [Revised: 05/04/2017] [Accepted: 05/04/2017] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Behavioural laterality is a commonly observed phenomenon in many species suggesting there might be an advantage of using dominantly one side over the other for certain tasks. Indeed, lateralized individuals were often shown to be more successful in cognitive tasks compared to non-lateralized conspecifics. However, stressed individuals are also often, but not always, more strongly lateralized. Because barn owl (Tyto alba) females displaying larger black spots on the tip of their ventral feathers produce offspring that are more resistant to a variety of environmental stressful factors, we examined whether laterality is associated with melanin-based coloration. We recorded whether nestlings use more often the right or left foot to scratch their body and whether they preen more often one side of the body or the other using their bills. We found that the strength of lateralization of preening and scratching was less pronounced in individuals born from heavily spotted mothers. This result might be explained by plumage-related variation in the ability to resist stressful rearing conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Madeleine F Scriba
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Biophore Building, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Alexandre Roulin
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Biophore Building, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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Sex, boldness and stress experience affect convict cichlid, Amatitlania nigrofasciata, open field behaviour. Anim Behav 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.05.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
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10
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Laterality is linked to personality in the black-lined rainbowfish, Melanotaenia nigrans. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2014. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-014-1712-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
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Dinsdale NL, Reddon AR, Hurd PL. Sex differences in the relationship between aggressiveness and the strength of handedness in humans. Laterality 2010; 16:385-400. [DOI: 10.1080/13576501003683087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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