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Snow Bathing by House Finches: A Review of this Behavior by North American Birds
I report a case of snow bathing by House Finches (Carpodacus mexicanus), apparently the first for this species. As many as 15 finches bathed together, three to four at a time, in 18 cm of fresh loose snow in a manner typical when birds bathe in water or dirt: wings fluttered near the sides to spray the snow over the body with back and head plumage erected while the breast was pressed into the snow. Relatively few accounts of birds bathing in snow have been published. I found 23 prior reports of snow bathing for 16 North American species, mostly Passeriformes but including Falconiformes, Galliformes, Strigiformes, and Piciformes. Bathing in loose or uncompacted snow occurred more often than in wet or crusted snow, and there was a tendency for more than one bird to engage in snow bathing during each event. Brevity of accounts prevented identification of other factors that may be frequently associated with snow bathing. Bathing in snow is a routine behavior for some bird species, such as ptarmigan, and European accounts indicate that it is undoubtedly more widespread among North American species than shown by review of the literature.
Journal Article
Neurobiology of grooming behavior
\"Grooming is among the most evolutionary ancient and highly represented behaviors in many animal species. It represents a significant proportion of an animal's total activity and between 30-50% of their waking hours. Recent research has demonstrated that grooming is regulated by specific brain circuits and is sensitive to stress, as well as to pharmacologic compounds and genetic manipulation, making it ideal for modelling affective disorders that arise as a function of stressful environments, such as stress and post-traumatic stress disorder. Over a series of 12 chapters that introduce and explicate the field of grooming research and its significance for the human and animal brain, this book covers the breadth of grooming animal models while simultaneously providing sufficient depth in introducing the concepts and translational approaches to grooming research. Written primarily for graduates and researchers within the neuroscientific community\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Neurobiology of rodent self-grooming and its value for translational neuroscience
Key Points
Self-grooming is an evolutionarily conserved complex innate behaviour that has a role in hygiene maintenance and other physiological functions. Self-grooming is the most frequently occurring awake behaviour in laboratory rodents.
Self-grooming is an important phenotype to study in translational neuroscience, as it may allow the modelling of human diseases that have symptoms similar to, and/or share pathogenetic mechanisms with, aberrant grooming in rodents.
Analysing animal self-grooming also has a broader value in the study of neurobiology underlying complex repetitive behaviours, which may be disrupted in certain neurological diseases.
In this Review, we discuss the neurobiology of grooming, including its underlying circuitry, genetic mechanisms and pharmacological modulation.
We also highlight studies of rodent self-grooming behaviour in models of neuropsychiatric disorders that suggest that it is valuable asset for clinical and translational neuroscience research, including the identification of neural circuits that control complex patterned behaviours.
These findings suggest that the study of rodent self-grooming has multiple implications for translational neuroscience, which may extend beyond understanding the self-grooming behaviour itself.
Rodents spend a large proportion of their waking time engaged in self-grooming behaviour. In this Review, Kalueff and colleagues describe the characteristics and underlying neural circuitry of rodent self-grooming, and discuss its use as a measure of repetitive behaviour in models of psychiatric disease.
Self-grooming is a complex innate behaviour with an evolutionarily conserved sequencing pattern and is one of the most frequently performed behavioural activities in rodents. In this Review, we discuss the neurobiology of rodent self-grooming, and we highlight studies of rodent models of neuropsychiatric disorders — including models of autism spectrum disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder — that have assessed self-grooming phenotypes. We suggest that rodent self-grooming may be a useful measure of repetitive behaviour in such models, and therefore of value to translational psychiatry. Assessment of rodent self-grooming may also be useful for understanding the neural circuits that are involved in complex sequential patterns of action.
Journal Article
Social Grooming in Bats: Are Vampire Bats Exceptional?
Evidence for long-term cooperative relationships comes from several social birds and mammals. Vampire bats demonstrate cooperative social bonds, and like primates, they maintain these bonds through social grooming. It is unclear, however, to what extent vampires are special among bats in this regard. We compared social grooming rates of common vampire bats Desmodus rotundus and four other group-living bats, Artibeus jamaicensis, Carollia perspicillata, Eidolon helvum and Rousettus aegyptiacus, under the same captive conditions of fixed association and no ectoparasites. We conducted 13 focal sampling sessions for each combination of sex and species, for a total of 1560 presence/absence observations per species. We observed evidence for social grooming in all species, but social grooming rates were on average 14 times higher in vampire bats than in other species. Self-grooming rates did not differ. Vampire bats spent 3.7% of their awake time social grooming (95% CI = 1.5-6.3%), whereas bats of the other species spent 0.1-0.5% of their awake time social grooming. Together with past data, this result supports the hypothesis that the elevated social grooming rate in the vampire bat is an adaptive trait, linked to their social bonding and unique regurgitated food sharing behavior.
Journal Article
Mouse neurexin-1α deletion causes correlated electrophysiological and behavioral changes consistent with cognitive impairments
Deletions in the neurexin-1α gene were identified in large-scale unbiased screens for copy-number variations in patients with autism or schizophrenia. To explore the underlying biology, we studied the electrophysiological and behavioral phenotype of mice lacking neurexin-1α. Hippocampal slice physiology uncovered a defect in excitatory synaptic strength in neurexin-1α deficient mice, as revealed by a decrease in miniature excitatory postsynaptic current (EPSC) frequency and in the input-output relation of evoked postsynaptic potentials. This defect was specific for excitatory synaptic transmission, because no change in inhibitory synaptic transmission was observed in the hippocampus. Behavioral studies revealed that, compared with littermate control mice, neurexin-1α deficient mice displayed a decrease in prepulse inhibition, an increase in grooming behaviors, an impairment in nest-building activity, and an improvement in motor learning. However, neurexin-1α deficient mice did not exhibit any obvious changes in social behaviors or in spatial learning. Together, these data indicate that the neurexin-1α deficiency induces a discrete neural phenotype whose extent correlates, at least in part, with impairments observed in human patients.
Journal Article
Assessing the effect of compounds from plantar foot sweat, nesting material, and urine on social behavior in male mice, Mus musculus
Home cage aggression causes poor welfare in male laboratory mice and reduces data quality. One of the few proven strategies to reduce aggression involves preserving used nesting material at cage change. Volatile organic compounds from the nesting material and several body fluids not only correlate with less home cage aggression, but with more affiliative allo-grooming behavior. To date, these compounds have not been tested for a direct influence on male mouse social behavior. This study aimed to determine if 4 previously identified volatile compounds impact home cage interactions. A factorial design was used with cages equally split between C57BL/6N and SJL male mice (N = 40). Treatments were randomly assigned across cages and administered by spraying one compound solution on each cage’s nesting material. Treatments were refreshed after day 3 and during cage change on day 7. Home cage social behavior was observed throughout the study week and immediately after cage change. Several hours after cage change, feces were collected from individual mice to measure corticosterone metabolites as an index of social stress. Wound severity was also assessed after euthanasia. Measures were analyzed with mixed models. Compound treatments did not impact most study measures. For behavior, SJL mice performed more aggression and submission, and C57BL/6N mice performed more allo-grooming. Wound severity was highest in the posterior region of both strains, and the middle back region of C57BL/6N mice. Posterior wounding also increased with more observed aggression. Corticosterone metabolites were higher in C57BL/6N mice and in mice treated with 3,4-dimethyl-1,2-cyclopentanedione with more wounding. These data confirm previous strain patterns in social behavior and further validates wound assessment as a measure of escalated aggression. The lack of observed treatment effects could be due to limitations in the compound administration procedure and/or the previous correlation study, which is further discussed.
Journal Article
Affiliation, empathy, and the origins of theory of mind
To understand the evolution of a Theory of Mind, we need to understand the selective factors that might have jumpstarted its initial evolution. We argue that a subconscious, reflexive appreciation of others’ intentions, emotions, and perspectives is at the roots of even the most complex forms of Theory of Mind and that these abilities may have evolved because natural selection has favored individuals that are motivated to empathize with others and attend to their social interactions. These skills are adaptive because they are essential to forming strong, enduring social bonds, which in turn enhance reproductive success. We first review evidence from both humans and other animals indicating that reflexive and reflective mental state attributions are inextricably linked and play a crucial role in promoting affiliative social bonds. We next describe results from free-ranging female baboons showing that individuals who show high rates of affiliative behavior form stronger social bonds with other females. These bonds, in turn, are linked to fitness. We then provide data from three different types of social challenges (male immigration, changes in grooming behavior after the death of a close relative, and responses during playback experiments), suggesting that females who manifest high rates of affiliative behavior may also be more motivated to anticipate challenges, react adaptively to setbacks, and respond appropriately to social interactions.
Journal Article
Pollen aggregation by viscin threads in Rhododendron varies with pollinator
• Pollen grains can be dispersed singly or variously aggregated in groups. Whether the evolution of pollen aggregation is driven by the pollinator remains unexplored. We hypothesize that an extensive pollen aggregation is favored under a scarcity of pollinators.
• Variation in pollen aggregation by viscin threads in 13 Rhododendron species was measured as it is related to pollen removal in a visit. Visitation rates of functional pollinator groups that vary in their grooming behavior were investigated in each species. Pollen deposited on stigmas in the field was also sampled.
• Seven Rhododendron species were infrequently pollinated by low-intensity grooming animals, including birds, butterflies and moths. The other six species were more frequently pollinated by bees with a high intensity of pollen grooming. Bird- and Lepidoptera-pollinated species produced longer pollen-connecting threads that connected more pollen grains. Phylogenetically independent contrast analysis of the 13 species showed that pollinator visitation frequency was negatively related to amounts of pollen removal per visit but not to stigmatic pollen loads.
• The finding of interspecific patterns in pollen removal related to pollinator visitation frequency suggests pollinator-mediated selection on pollen packaging strategies, supporting the hypothesis of floral evolution via pollen export.
Journal Article