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Grossberg S. How children learn to understand language meanings: a neural model of adult-child multimodal interactions in real-time. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1216479. [PMID: 37599779 PMCID: PMC10435915 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1216479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Accepted: 06/28/2023] [Indexed: 08/22/2023] Open
Abstract
This article describes a biological neural network model that can be used to explain how children learn to understand language meanings about the perceptual and affective events that they consciously experience. This kind of learning often occurs when a child interacts with an adult teacher to learn language meanings about events that they experience together. Multiple types of self-organizing brain processes are involved in learning language meanings, including processes that control conscious visual perception, joint attention, object learning and conscious recognition, cognitive working memory, cognitive planning, emotion, cognitive-emotional interactions, volition, and goal-oriented actions. The article shows how all of these brain processes interact to enable the learning of language meanings to occur. The article also contrasts these human capabilities with AI models such as ChatGPT. The current model is called the ChatSOME model, where SOME abbreviates Self-Organizing MEaning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Grossberg
- Center for Adaptive Systems, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
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2
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Grossberg S. A Unified Neural Theory of Conscious Seeing, Hearing, Feeling, and Knowing. Cogn Neurosci 2020; 12:69-73. [PMID: 33136518 DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2020.1839401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Adaptive Resonance Theory does more than satisfy 'hard criteria' for ToCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Grossberg
- Center for Adaptive Systems, Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Departments of Mathematics & Statistics, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA USA
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Long HL, Bowman DD, Yoo H, Burkhardt-Reed MM, Bene ER, Oller DK. Social and endogenous infant vocalizations. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0224956. [PMID: 32756591 PMCID: PMC7406057 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224956] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2019] [Accepted: 07/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Research on infant vocal development has provided notable insights into vocal interaction with caregivers, elucidating growth in foundations for language through parental elicitation and reaction to vocalizations. A role for infant vocalizations produced endogenously, potentially providing raw material for interaction and a basis for growth in the vocal capacity itself, has received less attention. We report that in laboratory recordings of infants and their parents, the bulk of infant speech-like vocalizations, or "protophones", were directed toward no one and instead appeared to be generated endogenously, mostly in exploration of vocal abilities. The tendency to predominantly produce protophones without directing them to others occurred both during periods when parents were instructed to interact with their infants and during periods when parents were occupied with an interviewer, with the infants in the room. The results emphasize the infant as an agent in vocal learning, even when not interacting socially and suggest an enhanced perspective on foundations for vocal language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helen L. Long
- Origins of Language Laboratory, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - Dale D. Bowman
- Department of Mathematics, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - Hyunjoo Yoo
- Department of Communicative Disorders, College of Arts & Sciences, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States of America
| | - Megan M. Burkhardt-Reed
- Origins of Language Laboratory, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - Edina R. Bene
- Origins of Language Laboratory, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - D. Kimbrough Oller
- Origins of Language Laboratory, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
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4
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Grossberg S. A Path Toward Explainable AI and Autonomous Adaptive Intelligence: Deep Learning, Adaptive Resonance, and Models of Perception, Emotion, and Action. Front Neurorobot 2020; 14:36. [PMID: 32670045 PMCID: PMC7330174 DOI: 10.3389/fnbot.2020.00036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2020] [Accepted: 05/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Biological neural network models whereby brains make minds help to understand autonomous adaptive intelligence. This article summarizes why the dynamics and emergent properties of such models for perception, cognition, emotion, and action are explainable, and thus amenable to being confidently implemented in large-scale applications. Key to their explainability is how these models combine fast activations, or short-term memory (STM) traces, and learned weights, or long-term memory (LTM) traces. Visual and auditory perceptual models have explainable conscious STM representations of visual surfaces and auditory streams in surface-shroud resonances and stream-shroud resonances, respectively. Deep Learning is often used to classify data. However, Deep Learning can experience catastrophic forgetting: At any stage of learning, an unpredictable part of its memory can collapse. Even if it makes some accurate classifications, they are not explainable and thus cannot be used with confidence. Deep Learning shares these problems with the back propagation algorithm, whose computational problems due to non-local weight transport during mismatch learning were described in the 1980s. Deep Learning became popular after very fast computers and huge online databases became available that enabled new applications despite these problems. Adaptive Resonance Theory, or ART, algorithms overcome the computational problems of back propagation and Deep Learning. ART is a self-organizing production system that incrementally learns, using arbitrary combinations of unsupervised and supervised learning and only locally computable quantities, to rapidly classify large non-stationary databases without experiencing catastrophic forgetting. ART classifications and predictions are explainable using the attended critical feature patterns in STM on which they build. The LTM adaptive weights of the fuzzy ARTMAP algorithm induce fuzzy IF-THEN rules that explain what feature combinations predict successful outcomes. ART has been successfully used in multiple large-scale real world applications, including remote sensing, medical database prediction, and social media data clustering. Also explainable are the MOTIVATOR model of reinforcement learning and cognitive-emotional interactions, and the VITE, DIRECT, DIVA, and SOVEREIGN models for reaching, speech production, spatial navigation, and autonomous adaptive intelligence. These biological models exemplify complementary computing, and use local laws for match learning and mismatch learning that avoid the problems of Deep Learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Grossberg
- Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Departments of Mathematics & Statistics, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering, Center for Adaptive Systems, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
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Grossberg S. The Embodied Brain of SOVEREIGN2: From Space-Variant Conscious Percepts During Visual Search and Navigation to Learning Invariant Object Categories and Cognitive-Emotional Plans for Acquiring Valued Goals. Front Comput Neurosci 2019; 13:36. [PMID: 31333437 PMCID: PMC6620614 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2019.00036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2019] [Accepted: 05/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
This article develops a model of how reactive and planned behaviors interact in real time. Controllers for both animals and animats need reactive mechanisms for exploration, and learned plans to efficiently reach goal objects once an environment becomes familiar. The SOVEREIGN model embodied these capabilities, and was tested in a 3D virtual reality environment. Neural models have characterized important adaptive and intelligent processes that were not included in SOVEREIGN. A major research program is summarized herein by which to consistently incorporate them into an enhanced model called SOVEREIGN2. Key new perceptual, cognitive, cognitive-emotional, and navigational processes require feedback networks which regulate resonant brain states that support conscious experiences of seeing, feeling, and knowing. Also included are computationally complementary processes of the mammalian neocortical What and Where processing streams, and homologous mechanisms for spatial navigation and arm movement control. These include: Unpredictably moving targets are tracked using coordinated smooth pursuit and saccadic movements. Estimates of target and present position are computed in the Where stream, and can activate approach movements. Motion cues can elicit orienting movements to bring new targets into view. Cumulative movement estimates are derived from visual and vestibular cues. Arbitrary navigational routes are incrementally learned as a labeled graph of angles turned and distances traveled between turns. Noisy and incomplete visual sensor data are transformed into representations of visual form and motion. Invariant recognition categories are learned in the What stream. Sequences of invariant object categories are stored in a cognitive working memory, whereas sequences of movement positions and directions are stored in a spatial working memory. Stored sequences trigger learning of cognitive and spatial/motor sequence categories or plans, also called list chunks, which control planned decisions and movements toward valued goal objects. Predictively successful list chunk combinations are selectively enhanced or suppressed via reinforcement learning and incentive motivational learning. Expected vs. unexpected event disconfirmations regulate these enhancement and suppressive processes. Adaptively timed learning enables attention and action to match task constraints. Social cognitive joint attention enables imitation learning of skills by learners who observe teachers from different spatial vantage points.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Grossberg
- Center for Adaptive Systems, Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Departments of Mathematics & Statistics, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
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Carrick FR, Pagnacco G, Hankir A, Abdulrahman M, Zaman R, Kalambaheti ER, Barton DA, Link PE, Oggero E. The Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder With Auditory Neurofeedback: A Randomized Placebo Controlled Trial Using the Mente Autism Device. Front Neurol 2018; 9:537. [PMID: 30026726 PMCID: PMC6041407 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2018.00537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2018] [Accepted: 06/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction: Children affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have impairment of social interaction and demonstrate difficulty with emotional communication, display of posture and facial expression, with recognized relationships between postural control mechanisms and cognitive functions. Beside standard biomedical interventions and psychopharmacological treatments, there is increasing interest in the use of alternative non-invasive treatments such as neurofeedback (NFB) that could potentially modulate brain activity resulting in behavioral modification. Methods: Eighty-three ASD subjects were randomized to an Active group receiving NFB using the Mente device and a Control group using a Sham device. Both groups used the device each morning for 45 minutes over a 12 week home based trial without any other clinical interventions. Pre and Post standard ASD questionnaires, qEEG and posturography were used to measure the effectiveness of the treatment. Results: Thirty-four subjects (17 Active and 17 Control) completed the study. Statistically and substantively significant changes were found in several outcome measures for subjects that received the treatment. Similar changes were not detected in the Control group. Conclusions: Our results show that a short 12 week course of NFB using the Mente Autism device can lead to significant changes in brain activity (qEEG), sensorimotor behavior (posturography), and behavior (standardized questionnaires) in ASD children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frederick R Carrick
- Neurology, Carrick Institute, Cape Canaveral, FL, United States.,Bedfordshire Centre for Mental Health Research in Association with University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.,Harvard Macy Institute and MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Guido Pagnacco
- Bioengineering, Carrick Institute, Cape Canaveral, FL, United States.,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, United States
| | - Ahmed Hankir
- Bedfordshire Centre for Mental Health Research in Association with University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.,Psychiatry, Carrick Institute, Cape Canaveral, FL, United States.,Leeds York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds, United Kingdom
| | - Mahera Abdulrahman
- Department of Medical Education, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.,Department of Primary Health Care, Dubai Medical College, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
| | - Rashid Zaman
- Bedfordshire Centre for Mental Health Research in Association with University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.,Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | | | - Derek A Barton
- Neurology, Carrick Institute, Cape Canaveral, FL, United States.,Neurology, Plasticity Brain Center, Orlando, FL, United States
| | - Paul E Link
- Neurology, Plasticity Brain Center, Orlando, FL, United States
| | - Elena Oggero
- Bioengineering, Carrick Institute, Cape Canaveral, FL, United States.,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, United States
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Grossberg S, Kishnan D. Neural Dynamics of Autistic Repetitive Behaviors and Fragile X Syndrome: Basal Ganglia Movement Gating and mGluR-Modulated Adaptively Timed Learning. Front Psychol 2018; 9:269. [PMID: 29593596 PMCID: PMC5859312 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2017] [Accepted: 02/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
This article develops the iSTART neural model that proposes how specific imbalances in cognitive, emotional, timing, and motor processes that involve brain regions like prefrontal cortex, temporal cortex, amygdala, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and cerebellum may interact together to cause behavioral symptoms of autism. These imbalances include underaroused emotional depression in the amygdala/hypothalamus, learning of hyperspecific recognition categories that help to cause narrowly focused attention in temporal and prefrontal cortices, and breakdowns of adaptively timed motivated attention and motor circuits in the hippocampus and cerebellum. The article expands the model's explanatory range by, first, explaining recent data about Fragile X syndrome (FXS), mGluR, and trace conditioning; and, second, by explaining distinct causes of stereotyped behaviors in individuals with autism. Some of these stereotyped behaviors, such as an insistence on sameness and circumscribed interests, may result from imbalances in the cognitive and emotional circuits that iSTART models. These behaviors may be ameliorated by operant conditioning methods. Other stereotyped behaviors, such as repetitive motor behaviors, may result from imbalances in how the direct and indirect pathways of the basal ganglia open or close movement gates, respectively. These repetitive behaviors may be ameliorated by drugs that augment D2 dopamine receptor responses or reduce D1 dopamine receptor responses. The article also notes the ubiquitous role of gating by basal ganglia loops in regulating all the functions that iSTART models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Grossberg
- Center for Adaptive Systems, Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Departments of Mathematics & Statistics, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Devika Kishnan
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
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Grossberg S. Towards solving the hard problem of consciousness: The varieties of brain resonances and the conscious experiences that they support. Neural Netw 2016; 87:38-95. [PMID: 28088645 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2016.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2016] [Revised: 10/21/2016] [Accepted: 11/20/2016] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
The hard problem of consciousness is the problem of explaining how we experience qualia or phenomenal experiences, such as seeing, hearing, and feeling, and knowing what they are. To solve this problem, a theory of consciousness needs to link brain to mind by modeling how emergent properties of several brain mechanisms interacting together embody detailed properties of individual conscious psychological experiences. This article summarizes evidence that Adaptive Resonance Theory, or ART, accomplishes this goal. ART is a cognitive and neural theory of how advanced brains autonomously learn to attend, recognize, and predict objects and events in a changing world. ART has predicted that "all conscious states are resonant states" as part of its specification of mechanistic links between processes of consciousness, learning, expectation, attention, resonance, and synchrony. It hereby provides functional and mechanistic explanations of data ranging from individual spikes and their synchronization to the dynamics of conscious perceptual, cognitive, and cognitive-emotional experiences. ART has reached sufficient maturity to begin classifying the brain resonances that support conscious experiences of seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing. Psychological and neurobiological data in both normal individuals and clinical patients are clarified by this classification. This analysis also explains why not all resonances become conscious, and why not all brain dynamics are resonant. The global organization of the brain into computationally complementary cortical processing streams (complementary computing), and the organization of the cerebral cortex into characteristic layers of cells (laminar computing), figure prominently in these explanations of conscious and unconscious processes. Alternative models of consciousness are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Grossberg
- Center for Adaptive Systems, Boston University, 677 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Departments of Mathematics & Statistics, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering Boston University, 677 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
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9
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Botero
- Psychology and Philosophy Department, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, United States
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10
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Neural Dynamics of the Basal Ganglia During Perceptual, Cognitive, and Motor Learning and Gating. INNOVATIONS IN COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-42743-0_19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
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11
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Lorenz T, Weiss A, Hirche S. Synchrony and Reciprocity: Key Mechanisms for Social Companion Robots in Therapy and Care. Int J Soc Robot 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s12369-015-0325-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
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12
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From brain synapses to systems for learning and memory: Object recognition, spatial navigation, timed conditioning, and movement control. Brain Res 2014; 1621:270-93. [PMID: 25446436 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2014.11.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2014] [Accepted: 11/06/2014] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
This article provides an overview of neural models of synaptic learning and memory whose expression in adaptive behavior depends critically on the circuits and systems in which the synapses are embedded. It reviews Adaptive Resonance Theory, or ART, models that use excitatory matching and match-based learning to achieve fast category learning and whose learned memories are dynamically stabilized by top-down expectations, attentional focusing, and memory search. ART clarifies mechanistic relationships between consciousness, learning, expectation, attention, resonance, and synchrony. ART models are embedded in ARTSCAN architectures that unify processes of invariant object category learning, recognition, spatial and object attention, predictive remapping, and eye movement search, and that clarify how conscious object vision and recognition may fail during perceptual crowding and parietal neglect. The generality of learned categories depends upon a vigilance process that is regulated by acetylcholine via the nucleus basalis. Vigilance can get stuck at too high or too low values, thereby causing learning problems in autism and medial temporal amnesia. Similar synaptic learning laws support qualitatively different behaviors: Invariant object category learning in the inferotemporal cortex; learning of grid cells and place cells in the entorhinal and hippocampal cortices during spatial navigation; and learning of time cells in the entorhinal-hippocampal system during adaptively timed conditioning, including trace conditioning. Spatial and temporal processes through the medial and lateral entorhinal-hippocampal system seem to be carried out with homologous circuit designs. Variations of a shared laminar neocortical circuit design have modeled 3D vision, speech perception, and cognitive working memory and learning. A complementary kind of inhibitory matching and mismatch learning controls movement. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Brain and Memory.
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Parameswaran G. Are evolutionary psychology assumptions about sex and mating behaviors valid? A historical and cross-cultural exploration. DIALECTICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2014. [DOI: 10.1007/s10624-014-9356-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Deák GO, Krasno AM, Triesch J, Lewis J, Sepeta L. Watch the hands: infants can learn to follow gaze by seeing adults manipulate objects. Dev Sci 2014; 17:270-81. [DOI: 10.1111/desc.12122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 86] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2011] [Accepted: 07/30/2013] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Gedeon O. Deák
- Department of Cognitive Science; University of California at San Diego; USA
| | - Anna M. Krasno
- Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology; University of California; Santa Barbara USA
| | - Jochen Triesch
- Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies; Goethe University Frankfurt; Germany
| | - Joshua Lewis
- Department of Cognitive Science; University of California at San Diego; USA
| | - Leigh Sepeta
- Division of Pediatric Neuropsychology; Children's National Medical Center; Washington DC USA
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Adaptive Resonance Theory: How a brain learns to consciously attend, learn, and recognize a changing world. Neural Netw 2013; 37:1-47. [PMID: 23149242 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2012.09.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 183] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2012] [Revised: 08/24/2012] [Accepted: 09/24/2012] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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17
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Kasabov N, Schliebs R, Kojima H. Probabilistic Computational Neurogenetic Modeling: From Cognitive Systems to Alzheimer's Disease. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2011. [DOI: 10.1109/tamd.2011.2159839] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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18
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Rat pup social motivation: a critical component of early psychological development. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2011; 35:1284-90. [PMID: 21251926 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2010] [Revised: 01/07/2011] [Accepted: 01/11/2011] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Examining the role of the offspring in early social dynamics is especially difficult. Human developmental psychology has found infant behavior to be a vital part of the early environmental setting. In the rodent model, the different ways that a rodent neonate or pup can influence social dynamics are not well known. Typically, litters of neonates or pups offer complex social interactions dominated by behavior seemingly initiated and maintained by the primary caregiver (e.g., the dam). Despite this strong role for the caregiver, the young most likely influence the litter dynamics in many powerful ways including communication signals, discrimination abilities and early approach behavior. Nelson and Panksepp (1996) developed a preference task to examine early rodent pup social motivation. We have used the same task to examine how variations in maternal care or different environmental perturbations could alter the rat pup preferences for social-related stimuli. Rat pups receiving low levels of maternal licking and grooming were impaired in maternal odor cue learning and emitted lower levels of 22kHz ultrasounds compared to pups from the high licking and grooming cohort. Prenatal stress or early exposure to a toxicant (polychlorinated biphenyl) altered early social preferences in the rat pup in different ways indicating that diverse strategies are expressed and specific to the type of perturbation exposure. A greater focus on the offspring motivation following early 'stressors' will allow for more complete understanding of the dynamics in behavior during early social development.
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