Reflexive Behaviour Research Articles

Correction: Heuritsch, J. Reflexive Behaviour: How Publication Pressure Affects Research Quality in Astronomy. Publications 2021, 9, 52

The author was responsible for these errors in the original publication [...]

Development and verification of a physiologically motivated internal controller for the open-source extended Hill-type muscle model in LS-DYNA

Nowadays, active human body models are becoming essential tools for the development of integrated occupant safety systems. However, their broad application in industry and research is limited due to the complexity of incorporated muscle controllers, the long simulation runtime, and the non-regular use of physiological motor control approaches. The purpose of this study is to address the challenges in all indicated directions by implementing a muscle controller with several physiologically inspired control strategies into an open-source extended Hill-type muscle model formulated as LS-DYNA user-defined umat41 subroutine written in the Fortran programming language. This results in increased usability, runtime performance and physiological accuracy compared to the standard muscle material existing in LS-DYNA. The proposed controller code is verified with extensive experimental data that include findings for arm muscles, the cervical spine region, and the whole body. Selected verification experiments cover three different muscle activation situations: (1) passive state, (2) open-loop and closed-loop muscle activation, and (3) reflexive behaviour. Two whole body finite element models, the 50th percentile female VIVA OpenHBM and the 50th percentile male THUMS v5, are used for simulations, complemented by the simplified arm model extracted from the 50th percentile male THUMS v3. The obtained results are evaluated additionally with the CORrelation and Analysis methodology and the mean squared error method, showing good to excellent biofidelity and sufficient agreement with the experimental data. It was shown additionally how the integrated controller allows simplified mimicking of the movements for similar musculoskeletal models using the parameters transfer method. Furthermore, the Hill-type muscle model presented in this paper shows better kinematic behaviour even in the passive case compared to the existing one in LS-DYNA due to its improved damping and elastic properties. These findings provide a solid evidence base motivating the application of the enhanced muscle material with the internal controller in future studies with Active Human Body Models under different loading conditions.

Probing pain aversion in rats with the "Heat Escape Threshold" paradigm.

The aversive aspect of pain constitutes a major burden faced by pain patients. This has been recognized by the pain research community, leading to the development of novel methods focusing on affective-motivational behaviour in pain model animals. The most common tests used to assess pain aversion in animals require cognitive processes, such as associative learning, complicating the interpretation of results. To overcome this issue, studies in recent years have utilized unconditioned escape as a measure of aversion. However, the vast majority of these studies quantify jumping - a common escape behaviour in mice, but not in adult rats, thus limiting its use. Here, we present the "Heat Escape Threshold" (HET) paradigm for assessing heat aversion in rats. We demonstrate that this method can robustly and reproducibly detect the localized effects of an inflammatory pain model (intraplantar carrageenan) in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. In males, a temperature that evoked unconditioned escape following carrageenan treatment also induced real-time place avoidance (RTPA). Systemic morphine more potently alleviated carrageenan-induced heat aversion (as measured by the HET and RTPA methods), as compared to reflexive responses to heat (as measured by the Hargreaves test), supporting previous findings. Next, we examined how blocking of excitatory transmission to the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPBN), a key node in the ascending pain system, affects pain behaviour. Using the HET and Hargreaves tests, we show that intra-LPBN application of glutamate antagonists reverses the effects of carrageenan on both affective and reflexive pain behaviour, respectively. Finally, we employed the HET paradigm in a generalized opioid-withdrawal pain model. Withdrawal from a brief systemic administration of remifentanil resulted in a long-lasting and robust increase in heat aversion, but no change in reflexive responses to heat. Taken together, these data demonstrate the utility of the HET paradigm as a novel tool in preclinical pain research.

Reflexive Behaviour: How Publication Pressure Affects Research Quality in Astronomy

Reflexive metrics is a branch of science studies that explores how the demand for accountability and performance measurement in science has shaped the research culture in recent decades. Hypercompetition and publication pressure are part of this neoliberal culture. How do scientists respond to these pressures? Studies on research integrity and organisational culture suggest that people who feel treated unfairly by their institution are more likely to engage in deviant behaviour, such as scientific misconduct. By building up on reflexive metrics, combined with studies on the influence of organisational culture on research integrity, this study reflects on the research behaviour of astronomers with the following questions: (1) To what extent is research (mis-)behaviour reflexive, i.e., dependent on perceptions of publication pressure and distributive and organisational justice? (2) What impact does scientific misconduct have on research quality? In order to perform this reflection, we conducted a comprehensive survey of academic and non-academic astronomers worldwide and received 3509 responses. We found that publication pressure explains 19% of the variance in occurrence of misconduct and between 7% and 13% of the variance of the perception of distributive and organisational justice as well as overcommitment to work. Our results on the perceived impact of scientific misconduct on research quality show that the epistemic harm of questionable research practices should not be underestimated. This suggests there is a need for a policy change. In particular, lesser attention to metrics (such as publication rate) in the allocation of grants, telescope time and institutional rewards would foster better scientific conduct and, hence, research quality.

Motor behaviour mimics the gaze response in establishing joint attention, but is moderated by individual differences in adopting the intentional stance towards a robot avatar

ABSTRACT Leading another person’s gaze to establish joint attention facilitates social interaction. Previously it was found that we look back at agents who engage in joint attention quicker than at agents who display this behaviour less frequently. This paper serves to fill in two remaining knowledge gaps. Firstly, we examined whether this looking-back behaviour is replicated by a manual response. In an online task, participants selected one of two objects. One robot identity on the screen followed the selection most of the time, whilst the other looked at the other object most of the time. Participants clicked back on the following robot quicker when it looked at the same object relative to when it did not. We found no such difference for the unfollowing robot. Secondly, we examined how individual differences in autistic traits and adopting the intentional stance affected participants’ behaviour over time. The results showed that autistic traits influenced participants’ motor responses over time across conditions, whereas this response was only sensitive to the intentional stance for the unfollowing robot. Our results indicate that there is a potential overlap between evoked gaze behaviour and manual actions. However, individual differences may not fully predicate reflexive social behaviour.

Habitus and reflexivity in tandem? Insights from postcolonial Sri Lanka

This article contributes to the unresolved concern about the relationship between habitus and reflexivity. Using Sri Lanka, a postcolonial social context, as the research ground, the article provides a contemporary interpretation of individuals’ reflexive and habitual behaviour that displaces Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as inappropriate for the representation of 21st-century social dynamics. While Sri Lanka is often labelled a traditional society, where habitual, routine, pre-reflexive action is thought to be more common, studies that question this generalised view appear to be largely absent. Therefore, based on a critical realist morphogenetic perspective that offers the analytical possibility of both routine and conscious action, this article investigates the role of habitus and reflexivity through 75 work and life histories gathered from Sri Lanka. The findings suggest that even the reproduction of traditional practices has increasingly become a reflexive task; thus, this work supports the position that habitus fails to provide reliable guidance to understand social action, even within a society labelled as traditional.

Project management in social work based on the example of social projects carried out in the Study of Social Work of the Institute of Sociology the University of Silesia

The education towards the job of a social employee requires the learning of specific knowledge that ensures the interdisciplinary and versatile preparation of a future professional. In this aspect, social projects are of particular importance as due to their multitasking requirements they stimulate student activity, allow for the combination of knowledge with action and activate reflexive behaviour, which allows for the evaluation of the designed activities. The preparation and implementation of projects are related to the necessity to assume a number of roles, creating the opportunity to test oneself in new activities and to determine the degree of self-readiness to do/perform the job. The aim of the article is to highlight the educational values of designing and presenting the structure of social projects realized at the Social Work Unit at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Silesia. The text also points out the difficulties that occur during the specific stages of project work and provides tips in order to avoid such difficulties.

Lifeway alibis: The biographical bases for unruly bricolage

The function of marketplace ideology to provide a framework that guides individuals’ conduct as consumers is well recognized, though less is known about how individuals address, resist or reconcile themselves to such ideology. Drawing upon ‘lifeway alibis’, assembled from a life course reading of de Certeauean tactics, this article deepens our understanding of how the ideology of nutritionism is renegotiated in the context of dietary health to better accommodate individuals’ life events, circumstances and timing in lives. Based on the interpretations of interview data, we argue that biographical matrices must be observed as principal facilitators for critical reflexivity beyond antagonistic and politico-collective motivations. Here, we consider critically reflexive behaviour – or unruly bricolage – to be organized around dynamic life experiences and circumstances rather than statically against marketplace ideology itself. This outlook prompts us to recognize biography as a catalyst for circumventing certain ideological mandates while the overall ideology remains perpetuated throughout circumvention.

PCI & auditory ERPs for the quantification of the level of consciousness: an EEG-based methods comparison study applied to disorders of consciousness.

Event Abstract Back to Event PCI & auditory ERPs for the quantification of the level of consciousness: an EEG-based methods comparison study applied to disorders of consciousness. Federico Raimondo1, 2, 3, 4*, Audrey Wolff1, Leandro R. Sanz1, Silvia Casarotto5, Matteo Fecchio5, Séverine Blandiaux1, Olivier Bodart1, Alice Barra1, Angela Comanducci5, Renate Rutiku5, Jitka Annen1, Mario Rosanova5, Marcello Massimini5, Jacobo D. Sitt2, 3, Steven Laureys1 and Olivia Gosseries1 1 GIGA Consciousness, University of Liège, Belgium 2 INSERM U1127 Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, France 3 Sorbonne Université, France 4 Applied Artificial Intelligence Lab, Department of Computer Science, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina 5 Dipartimento di Scienze biomediche e cliniche Luigi Sacco, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy Aims Patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) suffer from lack of awareness at different levels[1]. Clinical categories range from reflexive behaviour (Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome, UWS), to more complex purposeful interaction with the environment such as visual pursuit (Minimally Conscious State minus, MCS-), response to command (MCS+) or capacity to communicate and/or functionally use objects (Emergence from the Minimally Conscious State, EMCS). A challenge exists when diagnosing DOC patients. The gold standard diagnosis is performed by repeated and standardised behavioural assessments[2] (Coma Recovery Scale-Revised). Objective neuroimaging techniques are utilized to support clinical diagnosis. Compared to neuroimaging, EEG-based systems have the advantage of being repeatable and cheap. Two of the most reliable methods are the Perturbational Complexity Index[3] (PCI), driven by the Integrated Information Theory[4] (IIT), and a synergy of EEG-extracted markers[5], [6] from a standardised auditory oddball paradigm (EEG-ERP) that combines information content, information sharing and global workspace theory[7] (GWT) markers. This study, which is part of the Human Brain Project (SP3), aims to confront the results from these two methods when applied to the diagnosis of Disorders of Consciousness. Methods A multi-centre group of 25 DOC patients (i.e., UWS, MCS and EMCS) were subject to both EEG recordings. The PCI value was computed by compressing the spatiotemporal pattern of cortical responses to the perturbation of the cortex with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. We then extracted 120 markers, corresponding to quantification of power spectrum and complexity in individual EEG sensors and information sharing between EEG sensors. Finally, we contrasted the obtained PCI values, the values of the EEG-extracted markers and the predicted individual probability of being (minimally) conscious using machine learning. Results When we analysed the relationship between PCI and the most informative EEG-extracted markers, we found a significant correlation with Weighted Symbolic Mutual Information (r=0.42, p=0.034) but not with Alpha Power (r=0.37, p=0.06) and Kolmogorov Complexity (r=0.1, p=0.63). For the multivariate approach, PCI and EEG markers provided a consistent diagnosis for 19 patients (76%) and correlated positively (r=0.59, p=0.002). All UWS (N=5), all EMCS (N=4) and 9 MCS patients were correctly diagnosed by both methods. However, 1 MCS patient was misdiagnosed by both methods, and 6 MCS patients had inconsistent results between the measures. Conclusions PCI correlated positively with the combination of EEG markers in severely brain-injured patients, but not with all the markers independently. Although the EEG-ERP method was designed to probe the GWT, the combination of EEG markers used with machine learning is driven by multiple theories, including IIT and GWT. Case mismatches can be explained by the diverging purposes of the methods: while the PCI is designed to probe capacity for consciousness, EEG-ERP characterises the current state of consciousness. These findings suggest that the shared common background is also evident in the results, providing a validation of the methods and a link between these theories.

Perceived timing of a postural perturbation

Falling down is a common event that threatens the survival of an organism. Simple, yet sophisticated neural mechanisms allow for rapid detection of a fall as well as the generation of compensatory reflexes designed to prevent a fall. Fall awareness and preventative alerting devices could potentially mitigate the likelihood of a fall, however, relatively little is known about the perceived timing of a fall. Common anecdotal reports suggest that humans often describe distortions in their perception of time with very little recollection of what occurred during the fall. Previous research has also found that the vestibular system is perceptually slow compared to the other senses (45–160ms delay), indicating that vestibular stimuli must occur prior to other sensory stimuli in order for it to be perceived as synchronous. Here we examine whether fall perception is similarly slow. Participants made temporal order judgments identifying whether fall or sound onset came first to measure the point of subjective simultaneity. Results show that fall perception is slow, where the onset of a perturbation has to precede an auditory stimulus by ∼44 ms to appear coincident with the fall. We suggest that the central nervous system's rapid detection and response capabilities are restricted to reflexive behaviour, with conscious awareness of a fall being prioritized less. The additional lead times for detecting perturbation onset constrain possible fall detection and alert systems that have been proposed to inform a user to prevent falls and may also help explain the increased likelihood for fall incidence in the elderly.

Systems thinking in 21st century: a call to health promoters

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Model of Prey-Predator Dynamics with Reflexive Spatial Behaviour of Species Based on Optimal Migration.

We consider the model of spatially distributed community consisting of two species with "predator-prey" interaction; each of the species occupies two stations. Transfer of individuals between the stations (migration) is not random, and migration stipulates the maximization of net reproduction of each species. The spatial distribution pattern is provided by discrete stations, and the dynamics runs in discrete time. For each time moment, firstly a redistribution of individuals between the stations is carried out to maximize the net reproduction, and then the reproduction takes place, with the upgraded abundances. Besides, three versions of the basic model are implemented where each species implements reflexive behaviour strategy to determine the optimal migration flow. It was found that reflexivity gives an advantage to the species realizing such strategy, for some specific sets of parameters. Nevertheless, the regular scanning of the parameters area shows that non-reflexive behaviour yields an advantage in the great majority of parameters combinations.

The vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome: a systematic review of prevalence studies.

One of the worst outcomes of acquired brain injury is the vegetative state, recently renamed 'unresponsive wakefulness syndrome' (VS/UWS). A patient in VS/UWS shows reflexive behaviour such as spontaneous eye opening and breathing, but no signs of awareness of the self or the environment. We performed a systematic review of VS/UWS prevalence studies and assessed their reliability. Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL and PsycINFO were searched in April 2013 for cross-sectional point or period prevalence studies explicitly stating the prevalence of VS/UWS due to acute causes within the general population. We additionally checked bibliographies and consulted experts in the field to obtain 'grey data' like government reports. Relevant publications underwent quality assessment and data-extraction. We retrieved 1032 papers out of which 14 met the inclusion criteria. Prevalence figures varied from 0.2 to 6.1 VS/UWS patients per 100000 members of the population. However, the publications' methodological quality differed substantially, in particular with regards to inclusion criteria and diagnosis verification. The reliability of VS/UWS prevalence figures is poor. Methodological flaws in available prevalence studies, the fact that 5/14 of the studies predate the identification of the minimally conscious state (MCS) as a distinct entity in 2002, and insufficient verification of included cases may lead to both overestimation and underestimation of the actual number of patients in VS/UWS.

Cultural Diversity and Saccade Similarities: Culture Does Not Explain Saccade Latency Differences between Chinese and Caucasian Participants

A central claim of cultural neuroscience is that the culture to which an individual belongs plays a key role in shaping basic cognitive processes and behaviours, including eye movement behaviour. We previously reported a robust difference in saccade behaviour between Chinese and Caucasian participants; Chinese participants are much more likely to execute low latency express saccades, in circumstances in which these are normally discouraged. To assess the extent to which this is the product of culture we compared a group of 70 Chinese overseas students (whose primary cultural exposure was that of mainland China), a group of 45 participants whose parents were Chinese but who themselves were brought up in the UK (whose primary cultural exposure was western European) and a group of 70 Caucasian participants. Results from the Schwartz Value Survey confirmed that the UK-Chinese group were culturally similar to the Caucasian group. However, their patterns of saccade latency were identical to the mainland Chinese group, and different to the Caucasian group. We conclude that at least for the relatively simple reflexive saccade behaviour we have investigated, culture cannot explain the observed differences in behaviour.

Habituation of reflexive and motivated behavior in mice with deficient BK channel function

Habituation is considered the most basic form of learning. It describes the decrease of a behavioral response to a repeated non-threatening sensory stimulus and therefore provides an important sensory filtering mechanism. While some neuronal pathways mediating habituation are well described, underlying cellular/molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood. In general, there is an agreement that short-term and long-term habituation are based on different mechanisms. Historically, a distinction has also been made between habituation of motivated versus reflexive behavior. In recent studies in invertebrates the large conductance voltage- and calcium-activated potassium (BK) channel has been implicated to be a key player in habituation by regulating synaptic transmission. Here, we tested mice deficient for the pore forming α-subunit of the BK channel for short-term and long-term habituation of the acoustic startle reflex (reflexive behavior) and of the exploratory locomotor behavior in the open field box (motivated behavior). Short-term habituation of startle was completely abolished in the BK knock-out mice, whereas neither long-term habituation of startle nor habituation of motivated behavior was affected by the BK deficiency. Our results support a highly preserved mechanism for short-term habituation of startle across species that is distinct from long-term habituation mechanisms. It also supports the notion that there are different mechanisms underlying habituation of motivated behavior versus reflexive behavior.

Performance Deficits in a Voluntary Saccade Task in Chinese “Express Saccade Makers”

Differences in behaviour and cognition have been observed in different human populations. It has been reported that in various types of complex visual task, eye movement patterns differ systematically between Chinese and non-Chinese participants, an observation that has been related to differences in culture between groups. However, we confirm here that, in healthy, naïve adult Chinese participants, a far higher proportion (22%) than expected (1–5%) exhibit a pattern of reflexive eye movement behaviour (high numbers of low latency express saccades) in circumstances designed to inhibit such responses (prosaccade overlap tasks). These participants are defined as “express saccade makers” (ESMs). We then show using the antisaccade paradigm, which requires the inhibition of reflexive responses and the programming and execution of voluntary saccades, that the performance of ESMs is compromised; they have higher antisaccade directional error rates, and the latency distributions of their error saccades again exhibit a higher proportion of low latency express saccade errors consistent with a reduced ability to inhibit reflexive responses. These results are difficult to reconcile with a cultural explanation as they relate to important and specific performance differences within a particular population. They suggest a potential unexpected confound relevant to those studies of Chinese versus other groups which have investigated group differences using oculomotor measures, and explained them in terms of culture. The confirmation of higher numbers of ESMs among Chinese participants provides new opportunities for examining oculomotor control.

Behavioural Analyses of Quinine Processing in Choice, Feeding and Learning of Larval Drosophila

Gustatory stimuli can support both immediate reflexive behaviour, such as choice and feeding, and can drive internal reinforcement in associative learning. For larval Drosophila, we here provide a first systematic behavioural analysis of these functions with respect to quinine as a study case of a substance which humans report as “tasting bitter”. We describe the dose-effect functions for these different kinds of behaviour and find that a half-maximal effect of quinine to suppress feeding needs substantially higher quinine concentrations (2.0 mM) than is the case for internal reinforcement (0.6 mM). Interestingly, in previous studies (Niewalda et al. 2008, Schipanski et al 2008) we had found the reverse for sodium chloride and fructose/sucrose, such that dose-effect functions for those tastants were shifted towards lower concentrations for feeding as compared to reinforcement, arguing that the differences in dose-effect function between these behaviours do not reflect artefacts of the types of assay used. The current results regarding quinine thus provide a starting point to investigate how the gustatory system is organized on the cellular and/or molecular level to result in different behavioural tuning curves towards a bitter tastant.

Reflexive practice and the making of elite business careers

This article develops a new perspective on reflexive practice in the making of elite business careers. It builds upon Bourdieu’s practice framework to examine how business leaders from elite and non-elite backgrounds develop and practice reflexivity in their everyday lives. The article draws upon in-depth life-history interviews with members of the British business elite. Elites exhibited five types of reflexive behaviour, from which two modes of reflexive practice were derived: an accumulative mode, through which business leaders reflexively accumulate capital, positions and perspectives; and a re-constructive mode, through which they re-constitute the self in response to contingences, contexts and insights gathered. Our analysis suggests a link between reflexivity and career advancement, particularly in the case of non-privileged elites. Their greater experience of navigating the social landscape may facilitate perspective-taking, enhancing multipositionality, enabling such individuals to seize opportunities previously unthinkable.

If You're So Smart, Why Are You under Surveillance? Universities, Neoliberalism, and New Public Management

Although universities have undergone changes since the dawn of their existence, the speed of change started to accelerate remarkably in the 1960s. Spectacular growth in the number of students and faculty was immediately followed by administrative reforms aimed at managing this growth and managing the demands of students for democratic reform and societal relevance. Since the 1980s, however, an entirely different wind has been blowing along the academic corridors. The fiscal crisis of the welfare states and the neoliberal course of the Reagan and Thatcher governments made the battle against budget deficits and against government spending into a political priority. Education, together with social security and health care, were targeted directly. As the eighties went on, the neoliberal agenda became more radical—smaller state and bigger market—attacking the public sector itself through efforts to systematically reduce public expenditure by privatizing public services and introducing market incentives. At the

Disturbance and recovery of trunk mechanical and neuromuscular behaviours following prolonged trunk flexion: influences of duration and external load on creep-induced effects

Trunk flexion results in adverse mechanical effects on the spine and is associated with a higher incidence of low back pain. To examine the effects of creep deformation on trunk behaviours, participants were exposed to full trunk flexion in several combinations of exposure duration and external load. Trunk mechanical and neuromuscular behaviours were obtained pre- and post-exposure and during recovery using sudden perturbations. Intrinsic trunk stiffness decreased with increasing flexion duration and in the presence of the external load. Recovery of intrinsic stiffness required more time than the exposure duration and was influenced by exposure duration. Reflexive trunk responses increased immediately following exposure but recovered quickly (∼2.5 min). Alterations in reflexive trunk behaviour following creep deformation exposures may not provide adequate compensation to allow for complete recovery of concurrent reductions in intrinsic stiffness, which may increase the risk of injury due to spinal instability. Statement of relevance: An increased risk of low back injury may result from flexion-induced disturbances to trunk behaviours. Such effects, however, appear to depend on the type of flexion exposure, and have implications for the design of work involving trunk flexion.