Fixed Action Patterns Research Articles

More than a simple fixed action pattern: Yawning in drills

In the last decade, increasing attention has been devoted to exploring some aspects of yawning in non-human animals. With their chin red mark, bony paranasal swellings, male large brains and long canines, drills (Mandrillus leucophaeus) offer a robust model for testing hypotheses on the phenomenon. We identified two yawn variants (covered, YCT and uncovered teeth, YUCT) which differ in terms of recruitment of muscular action units (AUs). We tested the effects of several variables (sex, dominance rank, context) on the duration of the yawn and the probability of YCT or YUCT occurrence. We found that males performed longer and more YUCT than females. These findings support the Brain Cooling Hypothesis suggesting that those species showing large brains tend to display larger and longer yawns. We also tested the State Changing Hypothesis predicting the presence of a temporal association of yawning and ongoing behavioral transitions. A sequential analysis revealed that after 30 s following a yawn, drills were significantly more likely to change their behavioral state. Through the observation of yawning, conspecifics might gain knowledge of impending state changes. Seeing other’s yawns increased the probability of a similar response in the observers, thus suggesting the presence of yawn contagion in drills. Although the dataset needs to be expanded, our findings indicate that yawning is variable in drills, it can be associated with subjects’ state changes, and the imminent shifts can be perceived/processed by conspecifics.Graphical

Peptide-driven control of somersaulting in Hydra vulgaris

The cnidarian Hydra vulgaris has a simple nervous system with a few hundred neurons in distributed networks. Yet Hydra can perform somersaults, a complex acrobatic locomotion. To understand the neural mechanisms of somersaulting we used calcium imaging and found that rhythmical potential 1 (RP1) neurons activate before somersaulting. Decreasing RP1 activity or ablating RP1 neurons reduced somersaulting, while two-photon activation of RP1 neurons induced somersaulting. Hym-248, a peptide synthesized by RP1 cells, selectively generated somersaulting. We conclude that RP1 activity, via release of Hym-248, is necessary and sufficient for somersaulting. We propose a circuit model to explain the sequential unfolding of this locomotion, using integrate-to-threshold decision making and cross-inhibition. Our work demonstrates that peptide-based signaling is used by simple nervous systems to generate behavioral fixed action patterns.

Yawning informs behavioural state changing in wild spotted hyaenas

Yawning is a complex behaviour linked to several physiological (e.g. drowsiness, arousal, thermoregulation) and social phenomena (e.g. yawn contagion). Being yawning an evolutionary well-conserved, fixed action pattern widespread in vertebrates, it is a valuable candidate to test hypotheses on its potential functions across the different taxa. The spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta), the most social and cooperative species of the Hyaenidae family, is a good model to test hypotheses on yawning correlates and significances. Through an accurate sequential analysis performed on a group of wild hyaenas, we found that yawning mainly occurred during an imminent behavioural state changing in both juveniles and adults and that seeing others’ yawn elicited a mirror response in the receiver, thus demonstrating that yawn contagion is present in this species. These results taken together suggest that yawning is linked to a behavioural state change of the yawner and that such change is caught by the observers that engage in a motor resonance phenomenon, yawn contagion, possibly effective in anticipating yawners’ motor actions. Although additional data are necessary to verify whether yawn contagion translates into subsequent motor convergence and alignment, our data suggest that both spontaneous and contagious yawning can be fundamental building blocks on the basis of animal synchronisation in highly social and cooperative species.Significant statementYawning is pervasive in many animal species, including humans. It is considered as a polyfunctional cue that has a role in regulating social interactions. While several studies focussed on yawning functions in primates, a little amount of effort was devoted to exploring this behaviour in social carnivores. We monitored a group of wild spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta), which is one of the most cooperative carnivore species. In both immature and adult subjects, we found that a subject frequently changed its behavioural state after spontaneously yawning and that seeing others’ yawn elicited a mirror response in the observer. Although additional data are necessary to verify whether yawn contagion translates into subsequent motor convergence and alignment, our data suggest that both spontaneous and contagious yawning can be fundamental building blocks on the basis of animal synchronisation in highly social and cooperative species.

Friendly Greetings Elicit Improved Effectiveness of Dog Behaviour

Canus lupus familiais (domestic dogs) tend to elicit from (the sign stimulus of) a friendly greeting, improved effectiveness of behaviour, an (observable) innate, likely hormonal, (possibly oxytocin) mediated response (a Mebir). Breakthroughs in the natural and behavioural sciences, political ideology, and education come from evidence for {1} the Mebir, {2} the theorem, humans are loving, non-competitive, and non-aggressive (in part from two new theories of evolution), and {3} the Mebir providing social species with cultural and evolutionary freedom (e.g. the social brain hypothesis is substantiated). Other social species (including humans and songbirds), and possibly “non-social” species (e.g., including domestic cats) likely undergo a Mebir. Social species more frequently undergo social interactions suggesting they more frequently undergo the Mebir, and therefore have greater cultural and evolutionary freedom. Two hypotheses were tested and proven invalid. Friendly greetings do not make dogs more effective in behaviour (nor do they invoke innate hunting behaviours as a displaced innate response (that in wolves improve fitness)) (N = 50), and do not make dogs walk faster (N = 29). Data are inclusive of various dog breeds, mixed breeds, both sexes, and all ages from chance encounters with dogs being walked on a sidewalk in a naturalistic setting. Three synchronous greetings were used to elicit the Mebir in dogs, eye contact, friendly verbal greetings, and handwaves. Behavioural responses were commonly exaggerated but weak for certain individuals. Responses included heightened curiosity (about objects and the environment), courageous exploration, creative and playful behaviour, assertiveness (e.g., in pulling on the leash), “pronounced social affiliation seeking” with dogs, pedestrians, and the dog’s owner, heightened aggressiveness (when territorial), and perhaps heightened concentration. Past research indicates that dog learning is improved from social interactions with humans.

Antarctic teleosts with and without hemoglobin behaviorally mitigate deleterious effects of acute environmental warming.

Recent studies forecast that many ectothermic animals, especially aquatic stenotherms, may not be able to thrive or even survive predicted climate change. These projections, however, generally do not call much attention to the role of behavior, an essential thermoregulatory mechanism of many ectotherms. Here we characterize species-specific locomotor and respiratory responses to acute ambient warming in two highly stenothermic Antarctic Notothenioid fishes, one of which (Chaenocephalus aceratus) lacks hemoglobin and appears to be less tolerant to thermal stress as compared to the other (Notothenia coriiceps), which expresses hemoglobin. At the onset of ambient warming, both species perform distinct locomotor maneuvers that appear to include avoidance reactions. In response to unavoidable progressive hyperthermia, fishes demonstrate a range of species-specific maneuvers, all of which appear to provide some mitigation of the deleterious effects of obligatory thermoconformation and to compensate for increasing metabolic demand by enhancing the efficacy of branchial respiration. As temperature continues to rise, Chaenocephalus aceratus supplements these behaviors with intensive pectoral fin fanning which may facilitate cutaneous respiration through its scaleless integument, and Notothenia coriiceps manifests respiratory-locomotor coupling during repetitive startle-like maneuvers which may further augment gill ventilation. The latter behaviors, found only in Notothenia coriiceps, have highly stereotyped appearance resembling Fixed Action Pattern sequences. Altogether, this behavioral flexibility could contribute to the reduction of the detrimental effects of acute thermal stress within a limited thermal range. In an ecologically relevant setting, this may enable efficient thermoregulation of fishes by habitat selection, thus facilitating their resilience in persistent environmental change.

A Sexually Dimorphic Olfactory Neuron Mediates Fixed Action Transition during Courtship Ritual in Drosophila melanogaster.

Animals perform a series of actions in a fixed order during ritualistic innate behaviors. Although command neurons and sensory pathways responding to external stimuli that trigger these behaviors have been identified, how each action is induced in a fixed order in response to multimodal sensory stimuli remains unclear. Here, the sexually dimorphic lateral antennal lobe tract projection neuron 4 (lPN4) in male Drosophila melanogaster mediates the expression of a fixed behavioral action pattern at the beginning of the courtship ritual, in which a male taps a female body and then extends a wing unilaterally to produce a courtship song. We found that blocking the synaptic output of lPN4 caused an increase in the ratio of male flies that extended a wing unilaterally without tapping the female body, whereas excitation of lPN4 suppressed the transition from the tapping phase to the unilateral wing extension phase. Real-time calcium imaging showed that lPN4 is activated by a volatile pheromone, palmitoleic acid, whose responses were inhibited by simultaneous gustatory stimulation with female cuticular hydrocarbons, showing the existence of an "AND-gate" for multimodal sensory inputs during male courtship behaviors. These results suggest that the function of lPN4 is to suppress unilateral wing extension while responding to a female smell, which is released by appropriate contact chemosensory inputs received when tapping a female. As the female smell also promotes male courtship behaviors, the olfactory system is ready to simultaneously promote and suppress the progress of courtship actions while responding to a female smell.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Although it has been 80 years since Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen introduced how multiple acts comprising separate innate behaviors are released in a fixed order according to external stimuli, the neural circuits responsible for such fixed action patterns remain largely unknown. The male courtship behavior of Drosophila melanogaster is a good model to investigate how such a fixed behavioral sequence is determined in the brain. Here, we show that lateral antennal lobe tract projection neuron 4 (lPN4) in D. melanogaster functions as an "AND-gate" for volatile and contact chemosensory inputs, mediating the expression of tapping behaviors before unilateral wing extension during male courtship rituals.

Yawn contagion promotes motor synchrony in wild lions, Panthera leo

Yawning, a fixed action pattern, is widespread in almost all vertebrate taxa. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the functions of yawning. These hypotheses, not mutually exclusive, can be conventionally arranged according to both physiological (e.g. drowsiness hypothesis: yawning when switching between sleep and being awake; arousal hypothesis: yawning in contexts of high social tension) and social communicative domains (e.g. contagion hypothesis, activity synchronization hypothesis). Owing to their high social cohesion and synchronized group activity, wild lions are a good model to investigate both spontaneous yawning from the physiological domain and, possibly, contagious yawning, from the social communicative domain. We videorecorded two groups of lions in the Makalali Reserve (Limpopo region, South Africa) and analysed their yawning behaviour. Spontaneous yawning was particularly frequent when the lions were relaxed and, in agreement with the 24 h activity cycle typical of the species, was similarly distributed over the night and day. These findings support the drowsiness hypothesis predicting that yawning is linked to the transition between sleeping and waking (and vice versa). Lions did not show high levels of yawning during competition over clumped food such as carcasses; hence, the arousal hypothesis was not supported. We found that yawn contagion was present, supporting the contagion hypothesis and the activity synchronization hypothesis. Our findings suggest that the convergence of motor behaviour triggered by yawn contagion (to our knowledge never explored in any other species) could represent an important tool to shed light on the adaptive and immediate benefits that underlie the evolution of the yawn contagion phenomenon in human and nonhuman animals. • Lions yawn when they are relaxed and engage in social affiliation. • The arousal state seems to inhibit yawning in wild lions. • Wild lions are infected by others' yawns. • Yawn contagion facilitates motor convergence thus favouring lion group synchrony.

Orientation of Belminus triatomines to cockroaches and cockroaches’ fecal volatiles: an ethological approach

Most triatomine bugs (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) are hematophagous, though Belminus species can live off of cockroach hemolymph to complete their life cycle. In this work, we described the fixed action pattern (FAP) employed by B. ferroae to identify, approach, and suck on a living cockroach. The FAP described here is composed of the following stereotyped behaviors: (1) visual and/or olfactory detection of the cockroach, (2) reaching, (3) cautious approach, (4) antennal exploration, (5) extension of the proboscis, (6) piercing to sedate, (7) walking away and waiting (postsedation behavior), (8) second cautious approach, (9) extension of the proboscis, (10) piercing to suck hemolymph. The FAP sequence observed suggests that Belminus bugs are not predators like the rest of reduviids (assassin bugs)—but are kleptophagous ectoparasites, since they do not attack and kill a prey but rather steal hemolymph from its invertebrate host. Based on these ethological observations, we propose kleptophagy as a trait that naturally groups the Belminus species into the Triatominae subfamily. In order to identify chemicals cues that could elicit such FAP, we examined the behavior of B. corredori, B. ferroae, and B. herreri in response to the cockroaches’ odor, fresh cockroach feces and fresh rodent wastes. The last two sources were tested based on the assumption that abundant chemicals near host refuges could serve as cues for host orientation. We found that the cockroach odor emanating from a box significantly attracted B. corredori and B. herreri in a still air olfactometer. The three Belminus species approached the captive cockroach after 1 h, but avoided to climb the box. Odors emanating from the cockroach feces attracted B. corredori and B. ferroae in a Y-olfactometer. Triatomines and their hosts have intimately shared the same refuge for millions of years; certain molecules occur across invertebrate and vertebrate refuges and are recurrent in human abodes, thus plausibly explaining how these bugs can readily switch to the domestic habitat, while keeping with their kleptophagous nature.

Neural and endocrine responses to social stress differ during actual and virtual aggressive interactions or physiological sign stimuli

Neural and endocrine responses provide quantitative measures that can be used for discriminating behavioral output analyses. Experimental design differences often make it difficult to compare results with respect to the mechanisms producing behavioral actions. We hypothesize that comparisons of distinctive behavioral paradigms or modification of social signals can aid in teasing apart the subtle differences in animal responses to social stress. Eyespots are a unique sympathetically activated sign stimulus of the lizard Anolis carolinensis that influence aggression and social dominance. Eyespot formation along with measurements of central and plasma monoamines enable comparison of paired male aggressive interactions with those provoked by a mirror image. The results suggest that experiments employing artificial application of sign stimuli in dyadic interactions amplify behavioral, neural and endocrine responses, and foreshorten behavioral interactions compared to those that develop among pairs naturally. While the use of mirrors to induce aggressive behavior produces simulated interactions that appear normal, some behavioral, neural, and endocrine responses are amplified in these experiments as well. In contrast, mirror image interactions also limit the level of certain behavioral and neuroendocrine responses. As true social communication does not occur during interaction with mirror images, rank relationships can never be established. Multiple experimental approaches, such as combining naturalistic social interactions with virtual exchanges and/or manipulation of sign stimuli, can often provide added depth to understanding the motivation, context, and mechanisms that produce specific behaviors. The addition of endocrine and neural measurements helps identify the contributions of specific behavioral elements to the social processes proceeding.

Getting the Most Out of Your Zombie: Abdominal Sensors and Neural Manipulations Help Jewel Wasps Find the Roach’s Weak Spot

The parasitoid emerald jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa) subdues the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) with a sting to the 1st thoracic ganglion, followed by a sting to the roach’s brain, causing long-term pacification. The wasp then leads the cockroach to a hole where it lays an egg on the roach middle leg before barricading the entrance and departing. Although many aspects of the wasp’s initial attack have been investigated, few studies have detailed the egg-laying process and the subsequent fate of the larvae. Here I show that larval survival depends on precise egg positioning on the cockroach by the female wasp. Ablation of sensory hairs on the wasp’s abdomen resulted in mislaid eggs, which seldom survived. In addition, the cockroach femur may block the oviposition site. The wasp contended with this challenge with a newly discovered suite of stings, 3 directed into the 2nd thoracic ganglion which resulted in extension of the femur, thus exposing the oviposition site and removing a potential barrier to the wasp’s successful reproduction. When the femur was glued in place, the wasp stung the cockroach over 100 times, in an apparent fixed action pattern triggered by the obscured oviposition target. These findings highlight the importance of proper egg placement by the wasp, and reveal sensors and new neural manipulations that facilitate the process.

Documenting Aggression, Dominance and the Impacts of Visitor Interaction on Galápagos Tortoises (Chelonoidis nigra) in a Zoo Setting.

Simple SummaryUnderstanding the mechanisms by which welfare can be optimised in zoos is essential for improving standards of animal care. Using scan-sampling methods, assessments of group hierarchy and direct observations, the behaviour of Galápagos tortoises (Chelonoidis nigra) was assessed in relation to public interaction. We observed that head movements and height were of importance in aggressive interactions. We found that the presence of, and type of, visitors (keepers, vets or public) within the enclosure influenced behaviour in this species, with increasing levels of aggression and activity. We suggest that when visitors initiate finching, a behaviour in which a tortoise will stretch its body upwards to allow birds to remove ectoparasite in the wild, they negatively influence tortoise welfare. We suggest that careful management of public interaction with this species can improve welfare. Ensuring high levels of welfare is imperative for modern zoos, but such organisations must also engage visitors in order to successfully spread awareness and raise conservation funds. It is therefore important to understand the responses of animals to visitor interaction to optimise welfare. Often, the opportunity to interact with humans may be enriching for animals, but in other contexts, this interaction may have negative welfare effects. We observed captive female Galápagos giant tortoises (Chelonoidis nigra) to describe aggressive interactions, characterize hierarchy using Elo ratings and assess the impact of visitor interactions. Elo ratings indicated that one individual was dominant over two equally ranked subordinates; aggressive interactions are discussed in this context. We detected significant effects of the presence of visitors and visitor type (keepers, vets or public) within the enclosure on aggression and activity. We suggest that previous miscategorisation of a natural behaviour (the finch response) as an operantly conditioned behaviour, rather than a fixed action pattern, may have triggered aggression. We then document changes made to the management of the animals to mitigate the impacts discovered. This work highlights the importance of empirical evidence in determining optimal management strategies for zoo animals with regards to public interactions and animal welfare.

The Representation of External Threats: From the Middle Ages to the Modern World ed. by Eberhard Crailsheim and María Dolores Elizalde

Reviewed by: The Representation of External Threats: From the Middle Ages to the Modern World ed. by Eberhard Crailsheim and María Dolores Elizalde Alexandre Coello de la Rosa Eberhard Crailsheim and Marõa Dolores Elizalde, EDS. The Representation of External Threats: From the Middle Ages to the Modern World Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2019. 466 pages. Today's world is convulsed by global environmental threats, cultural fundamentalism, the rise of right-wing extremism, migratory crises, not to mention the impoverishment of large sections of the global population, the loss of political rights, and more recently, the deadly new coronavirus disease. In this pessimistic context, Brill has published a lengthy, multi-author edited collection, which revolves around the sociological theory that representations of external threats have the potential to impact the internal cohesion of and strengthen the existing social order in the threatened communities. Starting from a research project initially focused on the Spanish-colonial Philippines, editors Eberhard Crailsheim, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Institute of History, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), in Madrid, Spain, and María Dolores Elizalde, a CSIC researcher as well, expand the focus of security studies and threats to other geographical areas and historical periods to conclude that "threats are part of our daily lives. . . . [and] shape our political and social behaviour and contribute to the features of our personalities" (2). To narrow the focus, this volume concentrates on external military threats to states and empires and their sovereignty claims (5). The contributors come from different disciplines, such as political science, philosophy, and history, but no anthropologists were invited to participate, which would certainly have enriched the epistemological analysis of violence. [End Page 111] The book has seven parts, which reflect the variety of topics about and approaches to external threats. Part 1 features chapters that theorize the representation of external threats. In the first one, Crailsheim approaches threat representations from conflict sociology and securitization theories, emphasizing Niklas Luhmnann's theories on communication as the constituting element of a social system. He sees external conflicts as factors that increase the internal cohesion of a social group. Public fears fuel "real" threats, thereby reducing humanity to fixed-action patterns of aggression. In his chapter on nineteenth-century pan-Slavism, Vladimir Belous uses a dialectical approach to the dichotomy of own/alien to argue that every external threat is fundamentally a cultural conflict (64). Part 2 analyzes threat communication in general. It opens with Theresia Raum's chapter that applies Crailsheim's threat communication to explain how the Byzantine emperor and his court in the seventh century gained support from large sections of the Roman population in the face of external military threats, specifically the Persians and Avars. Marie Shreier focuses on the Scottish colonization attempt in Panama at the end of the seventeenth century. Looking at the same period, Simon Kemper examines the discourse of threat among the sultans of Banten in western Java, demonstrating how Muslim elites eventually transformed the potential threats posed by the Dutch East India Company into a security issue (106–27). Part 3 focuses on internal "others" turned into minoritized scapegoats. It begins with Stephan Steiner's chapter on the depiction of Gypsies in the Holy Roman Empire and the Austrian monarchy from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. They were accused not only of misdemeanors but also of acts of espionage and treason (134–39), making them the scapegoat for the people's fear of the Ottomans. The fate of the Armenian merchants in the Moldavian Principality was not much better, according to Alexandr Osipian, who links their depiction as heretic suspects to their trade "in the lands of infidels"—the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate (161–62). Finally, Anna Balian's essay analyzes the different ways the Russian ruling class represented Jews as intellectual, economic, and racial threats from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century (186–202). Part 4 concentrates on threat communication and how Europeans constructed a perverse image of their enemies. Federico Niglia discusses the perception of "the German" as a threat to the rest of Europe from the end of the Middle Ages to the Second World War. This process of "enmification...

A new window onto animal culture

AbstractScientific interest in the diversity of gestural signalling dates back to the figure of Charles Darwin. More than a hundred years later, there is a considerable body of work describing human gestural diversity across languages and cultures. However, the question of communicative culture in our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates, is relatively unexplored. Here, we will stir new interest into this topic by (i) briefly summarizing the current knowledge of animal culture, and (ii) presenting the current knowledge on gesture cultures, diversity and usage in the most common model for early hominid behaviour, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). We will focus particularly on well-established behaviours being customary in some and absent in other chimpanzee communities, and recently discovered social customs that have been suggested to differ in their form, and/or meaning across populations. We also introduce latest findings on chimpanzees’ gestural diversity, providing further evidence for the role social negotiation plays in gestural acquisition. We conclude that the field has been hampered by misconstruing great ape gestures as fixed action patterns, a strong research bias on the perspective of signalers, and a lack of coherent methodology to assess the meaning and context of gestures across sites. We argue for systematic cross-site comparisons by viewing communicative exchanges as negotiations, enabling a unique perspective onto the evolutionary trajectory of culture and communication.

Expanding our horizons: central pattern generation in the context of complex activity sequences

Central pattern generators (CPGs) are central nervous system (CNS) networks that can generate coordinated output in the absence of patterned sensory input. For decades, this concept was applied almost exclusively to simple, innate, rhythmic movements with essentially identical cycles that repeat continually (e.g. respiration) or episodically (e.g. locomotion). But many natural movement sequences are not simple rhythms, as they include different elements in a complex order, and some involve learning. The concepts and experimental approaches of CPG research have also been applied to the neural control of complex movement sequences, such as birdsong, though this is not widely appreciated. Experimental approaches to the investigation of CPG networks, both for simple rhythms and for complex activity sequences, have shown that: (1) brief activation of the CPG elicits a long-lasting naturalistic activity sequence; (2) electrical stimulation of CPG elements alters the timing of subsequent cycles or sequence elements; and (3) warming or cooling CPG elements respectively speeds up or slows down the rhythm or sequence rate. The CPG concept has also been applied to the activity rhythms of populations of mammalian cortical neurons. CPG concepts and methods might further be applied to a variety of fixed action patterns typically used in courtship, rivalry, nest building and prey capture. These complex movements could be generated by CPGs within CPGs ('nested' CPGs). Stereotypical, non-motor, non-rhythmic neuronal activity sequences may also be generated by CPGs. My goal here is to highlight previous applications of the CPG concept to complex but stereotypical activity sequences and to suggest additional possible applications, which might provoke new hypotheses and experiments.

Self, selving, and the education of attention

Movement that predicts an outcome is central to life and central to the self. Thinking ultimately represents directed movement. Self (an upper case noun) is an internal objective state, or fixed action pattern (FAP), while selving (a lower case verb) is a vital, purposefully moving, intricate felt process that lies at our psychic core. As illustrated through a case study, overly identifying with Self as one or many objective states will lead to repeating patterns that feel ‘stuck’ as a particular way of being in the world. It is through the appreciative SEEKING awareness of the intrinsic tension between these two opponent processors, Self and selving, that we nurture, in the words of Colwyn Trevarthen, “hopeful purposefulness.” Graceful selving in embodied time, informing what we value, can be nourished through the artful and caring education of attention in a companionable relationship, such as between therapist and client.

"Introduction to the special issue on neuroethology": Correction to Simmons and Moss (2019).

Reports an error in "Introduction to the special issue on neuroethology" by Cynthia F. Moss and Andrea M. Simmons (Behavioral Neuroscience, 2019[Jun], Vol 133[3], 265-266). In the original article, the order of authors was reversed. The correct order of authors is Andrea M. Simmons and Cynthia F. Moss. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2019-29253-001.) This special issue highlights some recent advances in neuroethology based on research presented at the 13th International Congress of Neuroethology and associated satellite symposia in Brisbane, Australia, on July 15-20, 2018. The discipline of neuroethology combines methods and concepts from ethology with those from neurobiology to develop a comparative analysis of the mechanisms of behavior that takes into account a species' ecology and evolutionary history. In his 1951 book The Study of Instinct, Nobel Prize winner Niko Tinbergen called on ethologists and neurophysiologists to join forces to search for mechanisms of motivated behaviors. He used the term "ethophysiology" to describe this integrative research approach, which he felt was crucial for developing a full understanding of behavior in all its complexities. At that time, "the ethologists were as naive about the neurophysiological significance of their findings as the neurophysiologists were about the behavioral implications of theirs" (Hoyle, 1984, p. 371). To rectify these limitations and to move forward, some of the earliest neuroethological research focused on understanding cellular mechanisms underlying the ethological concepts of releasers (sign stimuli) and fixed action patterns in species such as locusts and toads (Ewert, 1980; Hoyle, 1984). The breadth of neuroethological research soon expanded to include many other species, particularly those with distinct sensory or motor specializations (echolocating bats, electric fish, barn owls; Ewert, Capranica, & Ingle, 1983), as well as to understand neural mechanisms of more "general" behaviors, such as learning, memory, navigation, and communication. Molecular genetic, anatomical, and computational approaches are also part of the neuroethologist's toolbox. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Introduction to the special issue on neuroethology.

This special issue highlights some recent advances in neuroethology based on research presented at the 13th International Congress of Neuroethology and associated satellite symposia in Brisbane, Australia, on July 15-20, 2018. The discipline of neuroethology combines methods and concepts from ethology with those from neurobiology to develop a comparative analysis of the mechanisms of behavior that takes into account a species' ecology and evolutionary history. In his 1951 book The Study of Instinct, Nobel Prize winner Niko Tinbergen called on ethologists and neurophysiologists to join forces to search for mechanisms of motivated behaviors. He used the term "ethophysiology" to describe this integrative research approach, which he felt was crucial for developing a full understanding of behavior in all its complexities. At that time, "the ethologists were as naive about the neurophysiological significance of their findings as the neurophysiologists were about the behavioral implications of theirs" (Hoyle, 1984, p. 371). To rectify these limitations and to move forward, some of the earliest neuroethological research focused on understanding cellular mechanisms underlying the ethological concepts of releasers (sign stimuli) and fixed action patterns in species such as locusts and toads (Ewert, 1980; Hoyle, 1984). The breadth of neuroethological research soon expanded to include many other species, particularly those with distinct sensory or motor specializations (echolocating bats, electric fish, barn owls; Ewert, Capranica, & Ingle, 1983), as well as to understand neural mechanisms of more "general" behaviors, such as learning, memory, navigation, and communication. Molecular genetic, anatomical, and computational approaches are also part of the neuroethologist's toolbox. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

From Empathy to Apathy: The Bystander Effect Revisited

The bystander effect, the reduction in helping behavior in the presence of other people, has been explained predominantly by situational influences on decision making. Diverging from this view, we highlight recent evidence on the neural mechanisms and dispositional factors that determine apathy in bystanders. We put forward a new theoretical perspective that integrates emotional, motivational, and dispositional aspects. In the presence of other bystanders, personal distress is enhanced, and fixed action patterns of avoidance and freezing dominate. This new perspective suggests that bystander apathy results from a reflexive emotional reaction dependent on the personality of the bystander.

Ethological description of a fixed action pattern in a kissing bug (Triatominae): vision, gustation, proboscis extension and drinking of water and guava

Triatomines (Heteroptera, Reduviidae) are vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease in America. These true bugs have traditionally been considered to be blood suckers, although some species have been catalogued as being entomophagous. By using their highly specialized mouthparts, these insects have evolved a stereotyped habit which includes lifting up the proboscis, piercing and sucking, when the occasion arises. Most triatomines bite their sleeping and unaware vertebrate or invertebrate hosts, but they can also search for other targets, guided, in part, by visual and chemical stimuli. In this study, we observed that triatomines apparently visually identify a drop of water in the distance, then taste it with their legs, upon which proboscis extension and sucking ensues. This invariant behavior or fixed action pattern, observed in several triatomine species (Rhodnius prolixus, Triatoma infestans and Panstrongylus geniculatus), was also elicited by a dummy drop of water and guava fruit. We discuss evolutionary and ethological aspects of this innate behavior. Digital video images related to this article are available at http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo180314rp01a and http://www.momo-p.com/showdetail-e.php?movieid=momo180314rp03a.

Discrepancies in the spiking threshold and frequency sensitivity of nocturnal moths explainable by biases in the canonical auditory stimulation method.

The auditory stimulation method used in experiments on moth A cell(s) is generally believed to be adequate to characterize the encoding of bat echolocation signals. The stimulation method hosts, though, several biases. Their compounded effects can explain a range of discrepancies between the reported electrophysiological recordings and significantly alter the current interpretation. To test the hypothesis that the bias may significantly alter our current understanding of the moth's auditory transducer characteristics, papers using the same auditory stimulation method and reporting on either spiking threshold or spiking activity of the moth's A cells were analysed. The consistency of the reported data was assessed. A range of corrections issued from best practices and theoretical background were applied to the data in an attempt to re-interpret the data. We found that it is not possible to apply a posteriori corrections to all data and bias. However the corrected data indicate that the A cell's spiking may (i) be independent of the repetition rate, (ii) be maximum when detecting long and low-intensity pulses and (iii) steadily reduce as the bat closes on the moth. These observations raise the possibility that a fixed action pattern drives the moths' erratic evasive manoeuvres until the final moment. In-depth investigations of the potential bias also suggest that the auditory transducer's response may be constant for a larger frequency range than thought so far, and provide clues to explain the negative taxis in response to the searching bats' calls detection.