Intranasal oxytocin drives coordinated social approach

Coordinated responses to challenge are essential to survival for bonded monogamous animals and may depend on behavioral compatibility. Oxytocin (OT) context-dependently regulates social affiliation and vocal communication, but its role in pair members’ decision to jointly respond to challenge is unclear. To test for OT effects, California mouse females received an intranasal dose of OT (IN-OT) or saline after bonding with males either matched or mismatched in their approach response to an aggressive vocal challenge. Pair mates were re-tested jointly for approach response, time spent together, and vocalizations. Females and males converged in their approach after pairing, but mismatched pairs with females given a single dose of IN-OT displayed a greater convergence that resulted from behavioral changes by both pair members. Unpaired females given IN-OT did not change their approach, indicating a social partner was necessary for effects to emerge. Moreover, IN-OT increased time spent approaching together, suggesting behavioral coordination beyond a further increase in bonding. This OT-induced increase in joint approach was associated with a decrease in the proportion of sustained vocalizations, a type of vocalization that can be associated with intra-pair conflict. Our results expand OT’s effects on behavioral coordination and underscore the importance of emergent social context.

Intrapersonal Behavioral Coordination and Expressive Accuracy During First Impressions

What factors influence how accurately we express our personalities? Here, we investigated the role of targets’ nonverbal expressivity or the intrapersonal coordination between head and body movements. To do so, using a novel movement quantification method, we examined whether variability in a person’s behavioral coordination was related to how accurately their personality was perceived by naive observers. Targets who exhibited greater variability in intrapersonal behavior coordination, indicating more expressive behavior, were perceived more accurately on high observability personality items, such as how energetic and helpful they are. Moreover, these associations held controlling for other indicators of overall movement, self- and perceiver-rated extroversion, as well as how engaging and likable targets were perceived to be. This provides preliminary evidence that variability in intrapersonal behavioral coordination may be a unique behavioral indicator of expressive accuracy, although further research that replicates these findings and examines the causal associations is needed.

Monogamy in a moment: how do brief social interactions change over time in pair-bonded zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)?

Research on monogamy has largely focused on marked behaviors that are unique to pair bonded partners. However, these marked behaviors represent only a subset of the pair-directed behaviors that partners engage in; the influence of pair bonding on mundane or subtle social interactions among partners remains largely unknown. In the current study, we describe the changes that occur during brief social reunions (or greets) over the course of pair bonding in zebra finches. We quantified pair-directed behavior during five-minute reunions from three stages of pair bonding: initial pairing (between 4-72 hours), early pairing (1-2 weeks) and late pairing (>1 month). These social interactions were operationalized in multiple ways. First, we quantified the overall activity levels (call and movement rates) for both the male and female. Overall, females were more active than males, but for both males and females calling activity was highest at initial pairing. We quantified behavioral coordination between partners in two ways, 1) similarity in call and movement rates between partners, and 2) temporal synchrony of calls and movements between partners (via sliding correlation coefficients of time-stamped calls and movements). Overall there were no effects of pairing stage on behavioral coordination. Finally, we used principal component analyses to disentangle behavioral coordination from the activity levels of the male and female. These results contribute to a growing line of evidence that male and female zebra finches differentially contribute to social dynamics and highlight the influence of pair bonding on the development of social dynamics. Furthermore, our preliminary analyses raise the hypothesis that the behavioral coordination during the earliest phases of pairing is modulated by the extent and nature of prior experience. Overall, while behavioral coordination is clearly important for many salient interactions such as duetting, courtship displays and biparental care, the significance of mundane social interactions for monogamous partnerships remains largely unknown.

Monogamy in a moment: how do brief social interactions change over time in pair-bonded zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)?

Research on monogamy has largely focused on marked behaviors that are unique to pair bonded partners. However, these marked behaviors represent only a subset of the pair-directed behaviors that partners engage in; the influence of pair bonding on mundane or subtle social interactions among partners remains largely unknown. In the current study, we describe the changes that occur during brief social reunions (or greets) over the course of pair bonding in zebra finches. We quantified pair-directed behavior during five-minute reunions from three stages of pair bonding: initial pairing (between 4-72 hrs), early pairing (1-2 weeks) and late pairing (>1 month). These social interactions were operationalized in multiples ways. First, we quantified the overall activity levels (call and movement rates) for both the male and female. Overall, females were more active than males, but for both males and females calling activity was highest during the initial timepoint (between 4-72 hrs post-pairing). We quantified behavioral coordination between partners in two ways, 1) similarity in call and movement rates between partners, and 2) temporal synchrony between calls and movements (via sliding correlation coefficients of time-stamped calls and movements). Overall there were no effects of pairing on behavioral coordination. Finally, we used principal component analyses to disentangle behavioral coordination from the activity levels of the male and female. These results contribute to a growing line of evidence that male and female zebra finches differentially contribute to social dynamics and highlight the influence of pair bonding on the development of social dynamics. Behavioral coordination is clearly important for marked interactions (e.g. duetting, courtship displays and biparental care). Our results raise the question of what the roles of such mundane social interactions are in monogamous partnerships.

Herd Those Sheep: Emergent Multiagent Coordination and Behavioral-Mode Switching

Effectively coordinating one’s behaviors with those of others is essential for successful multiagent activity. In recent years, increased attention has been given to understanding the dynamical principles that underlie such coordination because of a growing interest in behavioral synchrony and complex-systems phenomena. Here, we examined the behavioral dynamics of a novel, multiagent shepherding task, in which pairs of individuals had to corral small herds of virtual sheep in the center of a virtual game field. Initially, all pairs adopted a complementary, search-and-recover mode of behavioral coordination, in which both members corralled sheep predominantly on their own sides of the field. Over the course of game play, however, a significant number of pairs spontaneously discovered a more effective mode of behavior: coupled oscillatory containment, in which both members synchronously oscillated around the sheep. Analysis and modeling revealed that both modes were defined by the task’s underlying dynamics and, moreover, reflected context-specific realizations of the lawful dynamics that define functional shepherding behavior more generally.