scholarly journals Behavioral flexibility in an invasive bird is independent of other behaviors

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corina J Logan
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Invasion Success ◽  
Species Invasion ◽  
Exploration Risk ◽  
Distinct Source ◽  
Open Question

Behavioral flexibility is considered important for a species to adapt to environmental change. Yet behavioral flexibility relates to problem solving ability and speed in unpredictable ways. This leaves an open question of whether behavioral flexibility instead varies with differences in individual behaviors, such as neophobia or exploration. If present, such correlations would mask which behavior causes individual variation. I investigated whether behavioral flexibility (reversal learning) performances were linked with other behaviors in great-tailed grackles, an invasive bird. I found that behavioral flexibility did not significantly correlate with neophobia, exploration, risk aversion, persistence, or motor diversity. This suggests that great-tailed grackle performance in behavioral flexibility tasks reflect a distinct source of individual variation. Maintaining multiple distinct sources of individual variation, and particularly variation in behavioral flexibility, may be a mechanism for this species’ invasion success by permitting populations to cope with the diversity of novel elements in their environments.

scholarly journals Behavioral flexibility in an invasive bird is independent of other behaviors

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corina J Logan
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Invasion Success ◽  
Species Invasion ◽  
Exploration Risk ◽  
Distinct Source ◽  
Open Question

Behavioral flexibility is considered important for a species to adapt to environmental change. Yet behavioral flexibility relates to problem solving ability and speed in unpredictable ways. This leaves an open question of whether behavioral flexibility instead varies with differences in individual behaviors, such as neophobia or exploration. If present, such correlations would mask which behavior causes individual variation. I investigated whether behavioral flexibility (reversal learning) performances were linked with other behaviors in great-tailed grackles, an invasive bird. I found that behavioral flexibility did not significantly correlate with neophobia, exploration, risk aversion, persistence, or motor diversity. This suggests that great-tailed grackle performance in behavioral flexibility tasks reflect a distinct source of individual variation. Maintaining multiple distinct sources of individual variation, and particularly variation in behavioral flexibility, may be a mechanism for this species’ invasion success by permitting populations to cope with the diversity of novel elements in their environments.

scholarly journals Behavioral flexibility in an invasive bird is independent of other behaviors

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corina J. Logan
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Invasion Success ◽  
Species Invasion ◽  
Exploration Risk ◽  
Distinct Source ◽  
Open Question

Behavioral flexibility is considered important for a species to adapt to environmental change. However, it is unclear how behavioral flexibility works: it relates to problem solving ability and speed in unpredictable ways, which leaves an open question of whether behavioral flexibility varies with differences in other behaviors. If present, such correlations would mask which behavior causes individuals to vary. I investigated whether behavioral flexibility (reversal learning) performances were linked with other behaviors in great-tailed grackles, an invasive bird. I found that behavioral flexibility did not significantly correlate with neophobia, exploration, risk aversion, persistence, or motor diversity. This suggests that great-tailed grackle performance in behavioral flexibility tasks reflects a distinct source of individual variation. Maintaining multiple distinct sources of individual variation, and particularly variation in behavioral flexibility, may be a mechanism for coping with the diversity of novel elements in their environments and facilitate this species’ invasion success.

scholarly journals Behavioral flexibility and problem solving in an invasive bird

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e1975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corina J. Logan
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Association Test ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Changing Environments ◽  
Important Trait ◽  
Use Behavior

Behavioral flexibility is considered an important trait for adapting to environmental change, but it is unclear what it is, how it works, and whether it is a problem solving ability. I investigated behavioral flexibility and problem solving experimentally in great-tailed grackles, an invasive bird species and thus a likely candidate for possessing behavioral flexibility. Grackles demonstrated behavioral flexibility in two contexts, the Aesop’s Fable paradigm and a color association test. Contrary to predictions, behavioral flexibility did not correlate across contexts. Four out of 6 grackles exhibited efficient problem solving abilities, but problem solving efficiency did not appear to be directly linked with behavioral flexibility. Problem solving speed also did not significantly correlate with reversal learning scores, indicating that faster learners were not the most flexible. These results reveal how little we know about behavioral flexibility, and provide an immense opportunity for future research to explore how individuals and species can use behavior to react to changing environments.

Translational approach to study flexibility as an endophenotype of obsessive compulsive disorders

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (S3) ◽  
pp. 546-546
Author(s):  
N. Benzina ◽  
S.L. Mondragon ◽  
N. Ouarti ◽  
L. Mallet ◽  
E. Burguiere
Keyword(s):  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Repetitive Behaviors ◽  
Reward Contingency ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Compulsive Behaviors ◽  
Translational Approach ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive Disorders ◽  
Compulsive Disorders

Behavioral flexibility is the ability of a subject to change its behavior according to contextual cues. In humans, Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD) is characterized by repetitive behavior, performed through rigid rituals. This phenomenological observation has led to explore the idea that OCD patients may have diminished behavioral flexibility. To address this question we developed innovative translational approaches across multiple species, including human patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorders, and rodent genetic models of OCD to provide original data in the perspective of enlightening the neurocognitive bases of compulsive behaviors. Behavioral flexibility may be challenged in experimental tasks such as reversal learning paradigms. In these tasks, the subject has to respond to either of two different visual stimuli but only one stimulus is positively rewarded while the other is not. After this first association has been learned, reward contingency are inverted, so that the previously neutral stimulus is now rewarded, while the previously rewarded stimulus is not. Performance in reversal learning is indexed by the number of perseverative errors committed when participants maintain their response towards previously reinforced stimulus in spite of negative reward. Unsurprisingly, this behavioral task has been adapted to mice using various response modalities (T-maze, lever press, nose-poke). Using animal models of compulsive behaviors give much more possibilities to study the deficient functions and their underlying neural basis that could lead to pathological repetitive behaviors. Here we present new behavioral set-ups that we developed in parallel in human (i.e. healthy subjects and OCD patients) and mice (i.e. controls and SAPAP3-KO mice) to study the role of the behavioral flexibility as a possible endophenotype of OCD. We observed that the subjects suffering of compulsive behaviors showed perseverative maladaptive behaviors in these tasks. By comparing the results of a similar task-design in humans and mouse models we will discuss the pertinence of such translational approach to further study the neurocognitive basis of compulsive behaviors.

Ordered Incremental Multi-Objective Problem Solving Based on Genetic Algorithms

2012 ◽  
pp. 72-98
Author(s):  
Wenting Mo ◽  
Sheng-Uei Guan ◽  
Sadasivan Puthusserypady
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Genetic Algorithms ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Benchmark Problems ◽  
Multiple Objective ◽  
Nsga Ii ◽  
Incremental Approach ◽  
Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm ◽  
Conflicting Objectives ◽  
Open Question

Many Multiple Objective Genetic Algorithms (MOGAs) have been designed to solve problems with multiple conflicting objectives. Incremental approach can be used to enhance the performance of various MOGAs, which was developed to evolve each objective incrementally. For example, by applying the incremental approach to normal MOGA, the obtained Incremental Multiple Objective Genetic Algorithm (IMOGA) outperforms state-of-the-art MOGAs, including Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II), Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA) and Pareto Archived Evolution Strategy (PAES). However, there is still an open question: how to decide the order of the objectives handled by incremental algorithms? Due to their incremental nature, it is found that the ordering of objectives would influence the performance of these algorithms. In this paper, the ordering issue is investigated based on IMOGA, resulting in a novel objective ordering approach. The experimental results on benchmark problems showed that the proposed approach can help IMOGA reach its potential best performance.

scholarly journals Behavioral flexibility in a mouse model for obsessive‐compulsive disorder: Impaired Pavlovian reversal learning in SAPAP3 mutants

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. e12557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastijn J.G. van den Boom ◽  
Adriana H. Mooij ◽  
Ieva Misevičiūtė ◽  
Damiaan Denys ◽  
Ingo Willuhn
Keyword(s):  
Mouse Model ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Compulsive Disorder

scholarly journals Native turncoats and indirect facilitation of species invasions

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1871) ◽  
pp. 20171936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobin D. Northfield ◽  
Susan G. W. Laurance ◽  
Margaret M. Mayfield ◽  
Dean R. Paini ◽  
William E. Snyder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Indirect Interactions ◽  
Invasion Success ◽  
Competitive Interactions ◽  
Species Invasion ◽  
Species Invasions ◽  
Indirect Facilitation

At local scales, native species can resist invasion by feeding on and competing with would-be invasive species. However, this relationship tends to break down or reverse at larger scales. Here, we consider the role of native species as indirect facilitators of invasion and their potential role in this diversity-driven ‘invasion paradox’. We coin the term ‘native turncoats’ to describe native facilitators of non-native species and identify eight ways they may indirectly facilitate species invasion. Some are commonly documented, while others, such as indirect interactions within competitive communities, are largely undocumented in an invasion context. Therefore, we use models to evaluate the likelihood that these competitive interactions influence invasions. We find that native turncoat effects increase with the number of resources and native species. Furthermore, our findings suggest the existence, abundance and effectiveness of native turncoats in a community could greatly influence invasion success at large scales.

scholarly journals Brain size predicts problem-solving ability in mammalian carnivores

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (9) ◽  
pp. 2532-2537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Benson-Amram ◽  
Ben Dantzer ◽  
Gregory Stricker ◽  
Eli M. Swanson ◽  
Kay E. Holekamp
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Technical Problem ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Invasion Success ◽  
The Relationship

Despite considerable interest in the forces shaping the relationship between brain size and cognitive abilities, it remains controversial whether larger-brained animals are, indeed, better problem-solvers. Recently, several comparative studies have revealed correlations between brain size and traits thought to require advanced cognitive abilities, such as innovation, behavioral flexibility, invasion success, and self-control. However, the general assumption that animals with larger brains have superior cognitive abilities has been heavily criticized, primarily because of the lack of experimental support for it. Here, we designed an experiment to inquire whether specific neuroanatomical or socioecological measures predict success at solving a novel technical problem among species in the mammalian order Carnivora. We presented puzzle boxes, baited with food and scaled to accommodate body size, to members of 39 carnivore species from nine families housed in multiple North American zoos. We found that species with larger brains relative to their body mass were more successful at opening the boxes. In a subset of species, we also used virtual brain endocasts to measure volumes of four gross brain regions and show that some of these regions improve model prediction of success at opening the boxes when included with total brain size and body mass. Socioecological variables, including measures of social complexity and manual dexterity, failed to predict success at opening the boxes. Our results, thus, fail to support the social brain hypothesis but provide important empirical support for the relationship between relative brain size and the ability to solve this novel technical problem.

scholarly journals Inability to activate Rac1-dependent forgetting contributes to behavioral inflexibility in mutants of multiple autism-risk genes

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (27) ◽  
pp. 7644-7649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Dong ◽  
Jing He ◽  
Shiqing Wang ◽  
Lianzhang Wang ◽  
Yuqi Cheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Repetitive Behaviors ◽  
Loss Of Function ◽  
Risk Genes ◽  
Risk Gene ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Similar Phenotype ◽  
Autistic Symptoms

The etiology of autism is so complicated because it involves the effects of variants of several hundred risk genes along with the contribution of environmental factors. Therefore, it has been challenging to identify the causal paths that lead to the core autistic symptoms such as social deficit, repetitive behaviors, and behavioral inflexibility. As an alternative approach, extensive efforts have been devoted to identifying the convergence of the targets and functions of the autism-risk genes to facilitate mapping out causal paths. In this study, we used a reversal-learning task to measure behavioral flexibility in Drosophila and determined the effects of loss-of-function mutations in multiple autism-risk gene homologs in flies. Mutations of five autism-risk genes with diversified molecular functions all led to a similar phenotype of behavioral inflexibility indicated by impaired reversal-learning. These reversal-learning defects resulted from the inability to forget or rather, specifically, to activate Rac1 (Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1)-dependent forgetting. Thus, behavior-evoked activation of Rac1-dependent forgetting has a converging function for autism-risk genes.

scholarly journals Cortical Hemodynamic Mechanisms of Reversal learning using High-Resolution Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: A Pilot Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
charlotte piau ◽  
Mahdi Mahmoudzadeh ◽  
Astrid Kibleur ◽  
Mircea Polosan ◽  
Olivier David ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Behavioral Abnormalities ◽  
Reward And Punishment

Abstract Background: Reversal learning is widely used to analyze cognitive flexibility and characterize behavioral abnormalities associated with impulsivity and disinhibition. Recent studies using fMRI have focused on regions involved in reversal learning with negative and positive reinforcers. Although the frontal cortex has been consistently implicated in reversal learning, few studies have focused on whether reward and punishment may have different effects on lateral frontal structures in these tasks. Here, in eight healthy subjects, we used functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS) to characterize brain activity dynamics and differentiate the involvement of frontal structures in learning driven by reward and punishment. Results: We observed functional hemispheric asymmetries between punishment and reward processing by fNIRS following reversal of a learned rule. Moreover, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (l-DLPFC) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were activated under the reward condition only, whereas the orbito-frontal cortex (OFC) was significantly activated under the punishment condition, with a tendency towards activation for the right cortical hemisphere (r-DLPFC and r-IFG). Our results are compatible with the suggestion that the DLPFC is involved in the detection of contingency change. We propose a new representation for reward and punishment, with left lateralization for the reward process. Conclusions: These results provide insights into the indirect neural mechanisms of reversal learning and behavioral flexibility and confirm the use of fNIRS imaging in reversal-learning tasks as a translational strategy, particularly in subjects who cannot undergo fMRI recordings.

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