Different Types Of Social Behaviors Research Articles

Edge effects and social behavior in three platyrrhines.

Social behavior is a key adaptation for group-living primates. It is important to assess changes to social behavior in human-impacted landscape zones to better understand the impact of anthropogenic disturbance on primate species. We investigated social behavior rate and type in three species of platyrrhines across 100 m anthropogenic edge and interior zones of a fragmented forest in Costa Rica, La Suerte Biological Research Station (LSBRS). Following results from other sites, we predicted that spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi), capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator) and howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata) would show lower rates and fewer types of social behavior in forest edge compared to interior. We collected 1341 h of instantaneous focal data from 2017 to 2023 across the three monkey species. We found mixed support for our predictions, with spider and capuchin monkeys modifying some but not all aspects of social behavior across forest zones at LSBRS. Spider monkeys had lower rates of social behavior and capuchin monkeys performed different types of social behaviors in forest edge compared to interior at LSBRS. In contrast, howler monkeys did not modify social behavior. Two out of three platyrrhine species altered their social behavior when in anthropogenic edges, indicating behavioral adjustment when in human-altered habitat areas at LSBRS.

Automated detection and analysis of social behaviors among preweaning piglets using key point-based spatial and temporal features

In the pig industry, the social behaviors of preweaning piglets are critical indicators of their liveability, growth, health, and welfare status. In this study, we developed a novel method based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) that extracts high-quality spatiotemporal features to detect different types of social behaviors among preweaning piglets: snout-snout and snout-body social nosing, and snout-snout and snout-body aggressive/playing behavior. In our method, piglets were first detected and individually tracked using an integrated CNN-based network. Upon piglet detection, the key points of the piglet body were detected using a key point detector and a 1-second-tracking-unit strategy was adopted to reduce the influence of tracking errors and missing the detection of piglets. To detect suspected social behaviors in a tracking unit, we constructed a self-adaptive spatial affinity kernel function to represent the relationships between piglets, and pairwise piglets with spatial affinity higher than 0.7 were kept for further analysis, while the others were filtered out. Thereafter, high-quality spatiotemporal features consisting of the piglets’ spatial affinity and the corresponding linear motion and angular motion intensities were extracted and input into a support vector machine to hierarchically detect and classify piglet social behaviors. In addition, the proportions of the four detected social behaviors associated with the interaction points were analyzed in short video clips and a long video that covered the whole daytime. Our method achieved a favorable detection performance with a recall of 0.9687, a precision of 0.9309, and an F1 of 0.9494 in the short video clips, and a recall of 0.9576, a precision of 0.9187, and an F1 of 0.9377 in the 8-h long video episode. This shows the feasibility of the detection of social behaviors for piglets using CNNs.

Ultrasonic signals associated with different types of social behavior of mice.

Communication plays an integral role in human social dynamics and is impaired in several neurodevelopmental disorders. Mice are used to study the neurobiology of social behavior; however, the extent to which mouse vocalizations influence social dynamics has remained elusive because it is difficult to identify the vocalizing animal among mice involved in a group interaction. By tracking the ultrasonic vocal behavior of individual mice and using an algorithm developed to group phonically similar signals, we show that distinct patterns of vocalization emerge as male mice perform specific social actions. Mice dominating other mice were more likely to emit different vocal signals than mice avoiding social interactions. Furthermore, we show that the patterns of vocal expression influence the behavior of the socially-engaged partner but no other animals in the cage. These findings clarify the function of mouse communication by revealing a communicative ultrasonic signaling repertoire.

The Role of the N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptors in Social Behavior in Rodents.

The appropriate display of social behaviors is essential for the well-being, reproductive success and survival of an individual. Deficits in social behavior are associated with impaired N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated neurotransmission. In this review, we describe recent studies using genetically modified mice and pharmacological approaches which link the impaired functioning of the NMDA receptors, especially of the receptor subunits GluN1, GluN2A and GluN2B, to abnormal social behavior. This abnormal social behavior is expressed as impaired social interaction and communication, deficits in social memory, deficits in sexual and maternal behavior, as well as abnormal or heightened aggression. We also describe the positive effects of pharmacological stimulation of the NMDA receptors on these social deficits. Indeed, pharmacological stimulation of the glycine-binding site either by direct stimulation or by elevating the synaptic glycine levels represents a promising strategy for the normalization of genetically-induced, pharmacologically-induced or innate deficits in social behavior. We emphasize on the importance of future studies investigating the role of subunit-selective NMDA receptor ligands on different types of social behavior to provide a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms, which might support the development of selective tools for the optimized treatment of disorders associated with social deficits.

The Role of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors in Social Behavior in Rodents.

The appropriate display of social behavior is critical for the well-being and survival of an individual. In many psychiatric disorders, including social anxiety disorder, autism spectrum disorders, depression and schizophrenia social behavior is severely impaired. Selective targeting of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) has emerged as a novel treatment strategy for these disorders. In this review, we describe some of the behavioral paradigms used to assess different types of social behavior, such as social interaction, social memory, aggressive behavior and sexual behavior. We then focus on the effects of pharmacological modulation of mGluR1-8 on these types of social behavior. Indeed, accumulating evidence indicates beneficial effects of selective ligands of specific mGluRs in ameliorating innate or pharmacologically-induced deficits in social interaction and social memory as well as in reducing aggression in rodents. We emphasize the importance of future studies investigating the role of selective mGluR ligands on different types of social behavior to provide a better understanding of the neural mechanisms involved which, in turn, might promote the development of selective mGluR-targeted tools for the improved treatment of psychiatric disorders associated with social deficits.

BEHAVIOR REACTIONS CHARACTERISTIC OF THE INDIVIDUALS WITH EGOISTIC AND ALTRUISTIC TYPE OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Different types of social behavior are characterized by different behavioral reactions. Characteristics of selfish and altruistic social behavior are not clearly confirmed by the data of psychophysiological studies. Therefore, the purpose of the work is to identify the peculiarities of behavioral reactions of individuals with more expressed egoistic and altruistic social behavior, which are based on data of electroencephalographic research. 120 (aged 21±4 years) individuals took part in the study. As a result of complex psychological testing (based on Leary’s test) all subjects were divided into two groups - altruistic and egoistic. Registration of electrical activity was carried out in a model of collective interaction using the Stag Hunt Game and a specially developed model of social behavior Mini-Basketball. The number of elections for egoistic and altruistic stimulus and the reaction time to them were observed in the study. The stimulus "Rabbit" and "Throw" were considered as egoistic; “Stag" and "Pass" - as altruistic in accordance with the test methods. As a result, the frequency of choosing the type of stimuli corresponds to the social orientation of the individuals. The reaction time increases with the choice of the type of stimulus, which does not coincide with the type of social orientation of the subject.

Parameter-robustness analysis for a biochemical oscillator model describing the social-behaviour transition phase of myxobacteria.

We develop a tool based on bifurcation analysis for parameter-robustness analysis for a class of oscillators and, in particular, examine a biochemical oscillator that describes the transition phase between social behaviours of myxobacteria. Myxobacteria are a particular group of soil bacteria that have two dogmatically different types of social behaviour: when food is abundant they live fairly isolated forming swarms, but when food is scarce, they aggregate into a multicellular organism. In the transition between the two types of behaviours, spatial wave patterns are produced, which is generally believed to be regulated by a certain biochemical clock that controls the direction of myxobacteria's motion. We provide a detailed analysis of such a clock and show that, for the proposed model, there exists some interval in parameter space where the behaviour is robust, i.e. the system behaves similarly for all parameter values. In more mathematical terms, we show the existence and convergence of trajectories to a limit cycle, and provide estimates of the parameter under which such a behaviour occurs. In addition, we show that the reported convergence result is robust, in the sense that any small change in the parameters leads to the same qualitative behaviour of the solution.

Machine vision methods for analyzing social interactions.

Recent developments in machine vision methods for automatic, quantitative analysis of social behavior have immensely improved both the scale and level of resolution with which we can dissect interactions between members of the same species. In this paper, we review these methods, with a particular focus on how biologists can apply them to their own work. We discuss several components of machine vision-based analyses: methods to record high-quality video for automated analyses, video-based tracking algorithms for estimating the positions of interacting animals, and machine learning methods for recognizing patterns of interactions. These methods are extremely general in their applicability, and we review a subset of successful applications of them to biological questions in several model systems with very different types of social behaviors.

Neuropeptide S reduces fear and avoidance of con-specifics induced by social fear conditioning and social defeat, respectively

Neuropeptide S (NPS) has anxiolytic effects and facilitates extinction of cued fear in rodents. Here, we investigated whether NPS reverses social fear and social avoidance induced by social fear conditioning (SFC) and acute social defeat (SD), respectively, in male CD1 mice. Our results revealed that intracerebroventricular NPS (icv; 10 and 50 nmol/2 μl) reversed fear of unknown con-specifics induced by SFC and dose-dependently reduced avoidance of known aggressive con-specifics induced by SD. While 50 nmol of NPS completely reversed social avoidance and reinstated social preference, 10 nmol of NPS reduced social avoidance, but did not completely reinstate social preference in socially-defeated mice. Further, a lower dose (1 nmol/2 μl) of NPS facilitated the within-session extinction of cued fear, while a higher dose (10 nmol/2 μl) reduced the expression of cued fear. We could also confirm the anxiolytic effects of NPS (1, 10 and 50 nmol/2 μl) on the elevated plus-maze (EPM), which were not accompanied by alterations in locomotor activity either on the EPM or in the home cage. Finally, we could show that icv infusion of the NPS receptor 1 antagonist D-Cys(tBu)5-NPS (10 nmol/2 μl) did not alter SFC-induced social fear, general anxiety and locomotor activity. Taken together, our study extends the potent anxiolytic profile of NPS to a social context by demonstrating the reduction of social fear and social avoidance, thus providing the framework for studies investigating the involvement of the NPS system in the regulation of different types of social behaviour.

Empathizing With Others’ Pain Versus Empathizing With Others’ Joy: Examining the Separability of Positive and Negative Empathy and Their Relation to Different Types of Social Behaviors and Social Emotions

Existing work linking empathy with social behavior has focused overwhelmingly on empathy for the negative emotions of others. But recent research suggests that feeling along with others’ negative emotions is a capacity distinct from feeling along with others’ positive emotions. In Study 1, we demonstrate the separability of positive and negative empathy by showing that although both relate to some of the same foundational empathic processes, each has a number of distinct correlates. In Study 2 we take an experimental approach and show that encouraging participants to empathize with the positive versus negative emotions of a suffering yet hopeful social group results in distinct patterns of vicarious emotion. Finally, Study 3 shows that although both positive empathy and negative empathy are associated to a similar degree with helping behavior directed toward others in need, positive—but not negative—empathy is related to “everyday” prosocial behaviors aimed specifically at increasing others’ positive emotions (e.g., random acts of kindness). Together, these results provide what to our knowledge is the first demonstration of the causal potency of positive and negative empathy as well as the first evidence that positive and negative empathy relate to different types of social behaviors.

Youth in the City: Behavior in the Extreme Case

Youth in the city causes one of the social problems connected with cultural, social and psychological environment of megalopolis. Students as social marginal group are the symbiosis of different types of culture, different types of social behavior. An empirical study is performed to reveal an attitude of students towards the behavior in the extreme case. The method of research is the panel survey of 613 students of Perm State Technical University (PNRPU) in 1996 and 1242 in 2010. This research is enabled to reveal: 1) character of fear as a parameter of students’ social feeling; 2) reasons of sense of exposure and fear; 3) factors influencing the appearance of sense of exposure; 4) extreme case as a social phenomenon in the city atmosphere; 5) students’ relation to the personal safety.

ON THE EVOLUTION OF HARMING AND RECOGNITION IN FINITE PANMICTIC AND INFINITE STRUCTURED POPULATIONS

Natural selection may favor two very different types of social behaviors that have costs in vital rates (fecundity and/or survival) to the actor: helping behaviors, which increase the vital rates of recipients, and harming behaviors, which reduce the vital rates of recipients. Although social evolutionary theory has mainly dealt with helping behaviors, competition for limited resources creates ecological conditions in which an actor may benefit from expressing behaviors that reduce the vital rates of neighbors. This may occur if the reduction in vital rates decreases the intensity of competition experienced by the actor or that experienced by its offspring. Here, we explore the joint evolution of neutral recognition markers and marker-based costly conditional harming whereby actors express harming, conditional on actor and recipient bearing different conspicuous markers. We do so for two complementary demographic scenarios: finite panmictic and infinite structured populations. We find that marker-based conditional harming can evolve under a large range of recombination rates and group sizes under both finite panmictic and infinite structured populations. A direct comparison with results for the evolution of marker-based conditional helping reveals that, if everything else is equal, marker-based conditional harming is often more likely to evolve than marker-based conditional helping.

Laterality and cooperation: mosquitofish move closer to a predator when the companion is on their left side

Mirror images simulating social partners that cooperated or defected have been used as an experimental method to test the hypothesis that, while inspecting a predator, pairs of fish play a conditional strategy, Tit for Tat, in an iterated version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma game. Using this method, we found that predator inspection was more likely to occur when the mirror image was visible on the left rather than on the right side of mosquitofish,Gambusia holbrooki. The same occurred even when a videorecorded stimulus presentation was used, in which sequences of the predator were mixed with their mirror-image equivalents, thus showing that the asymmetry was not due to behavioural or morphological asymmetries of the predator itself. Moreover, irrespective of whether they were tested with a cooperative (parallel mirror) or a defecting (angled mirror) partner, mosquitofish drew closer to the predator when the mirror was on their left side. These findings suggest that the images seen on the right and left sides by a fish may evoke different types of social behaviour, probably because of differing modes of analysis of perceptual information carried out by the left and right sides of the brain; accurate control and balancing of the side of presentation of visual stimuli during behavioural experiments thus appears to be crucial.

How useful are the concepts of alternative strategy and coping strategy in applied studies of social behaviour?

The concepts of alternative strategy and coping strategy and their relevance to applied studies of social behaviour are considered. It is clear that a universally agreed definition of “strategy” is not available, and that there are few good examples of discrete social strategies in applied ethology. However, general principles emerging from theoretical and empirical studies of behavioural strategies do have some value for applied ethology research. Alternative strategy theory emphasises the importance of measuring the costs and benefits of different types of social behaviour, and of being aware that different behavioural solutions to the same problem may be equally successful. There are significant problems in using a cost/benefit currency of inclusive fitness in applied studies of domestic animals, but a currency related to measures of animal welfare may be of use and of relevance to applied ethologists. Cost/benefit analysis may reveal that the “traditional” view of a positive linear relationship between social rank and measures of welfare or fitness is not always correct. In some cases, animals of quite different social rank may do similarly well in terms of their welfare and reproduction. The idea that individuals respond to threatening or challenging situations using specific coping strategies may have some applicability in social contexts. During introduction to novel conspecifics, or social upheaval, individuals may behave in ways in which are reasonably predictable from a knowledge of their coping strategies. However, it is argued that such predictability is unlikely in stable social groupings and thus has limited practical value. Nevertheless, this remains to be investigated experimentally. If consistent coping strategies in social situations are found to exist, it is possible that they may represent frequency-dependent alternative strategies whose costs and benefits can be analysed. If so, there will be a population equilibrium point at which followers of different strategies are, on average, equally successful. From a practical perspective, it is possible that this population structure also results in minimal welfare problems and maximal growth rates.