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Nature Reviews. Neuroscience Mar 2021Cognitive and behavioural flexibility permit the appropriate adjustment of thoughts and behaviours in response to changing environmental demands. Brain mechanisms... (Review)
Review
Cognitive and behavioural flexibility permit the appropriate adjustment of thoughts and behaviours in response to changing environmental demands. Brain mechanisms enabling flexibility have been examined using non-invasive neuroimaging and behavioural approaches in humans alongside pharmacological and lesion studies in animals. This work has identified large-scale functional brain networks encompassing lateral and orbital frontoparietal, midcingulo-insular and frontostriatal regions that support flexibility across the lifespan. Flexibility can be compromised in early-life neurodevelopmental disorders, clinical conditions that emerge during adolescence and late-life dementias. We critically evaluate evidence for the enhancement of flexibility through cognitive training, physical activity and bilingual experience.
Topics: Animals; Behavior; Behavioral Symptoms; Cognition; Cognition Disorders; Humans; Nerve Net; Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; Neural Pathways
PubMed: 33536614
DOI: 10.1038/s41583-021-00428-w -
Nature Nov 2022Chronic stress can have lasting adverse consequences in some individuals, yet others are resilient to the same stressor. Susceptible and resilient individuals exhibit...
Chronic stress can have lasting adverse consequences in some individuals, yet others are resilient to the same stressor. Susceptible and resilient individuals exhibit differences in the intrinsic properties of mesolimbic dopamine (DA) neurons after the stressful experience is over. However, the causal links between DA, behaviour during stress and individual differences in resilience are unknown. Here we recorded behaviour in mice simultaneously with DA neuron activity in projections to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) (which signals reward) and the tail striatum (TS) (which signals threat) during social defeat. Supervised and unsupervised behavioural quantification revealed that during stress, resilient and susceptible mice use different behavioural strategies and have distinct activity patterns in DA terminals in the NAc (but not the TS). Neurally, resilient mice have greater activity near the aggressor, including at the onset of fighting back. Conversely, susceptible mice have greater activity at the offset of attacks and onset of fleeing. We also performed optogenetic stimulation of NAc-projecting DA neurons in open loop (randomly timed) during defeat or timed to specific behaviours using real-time behavioural classification. Both open-loop and fighting-back-timed activation promoted resilience and reorganized behaviour during defeat towards resilience-associated patterns. Together, these data provide a link between DA neural activity, resilience and resilience-associated behaviour during the experience of stress.
Topics: Animals; Mice; Dopamine; Dopaminergic Neurons; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Nucleus Accumbens; Reward; Stress, Psychological; Resilience, Psychological; Optogenetics; Neostriatum; Behavior, Animal
PubMed: 36261520
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05328-2 -
Health Psychology Review Jun 2022Stress leads to detrimental health outcomes through direct biological and indirect behavioural changes. Stress can lead to disruption to normal eating behaviours,... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Stress leads to detrimental health outcomes through direct biological and indirect behavioural changes. Stress can lead to disruption to normal eating behaviours, although the strength of these associations is unknown. This is the first meta-analysis to determine the strength of the stress-eating relationship in healthy adults and to explore the impact of potential moderators. Studies included had a clearly defined measure of stress (i.e., any noxious event or episode in one's environment with the exclusion of emotional distress) that was linked to non-disordered eating. Key terms were searched in Medline, PsycInfo and Ovid databases (23,104 studies identified). 54 studies (combined = 119,820) were retained in the meta-analysis. A small, positive effect size was found for the stress-overall food intake relationship ( 0.114). Stress was associated with increased consumption of unhealthy foods (0.116) but decreased consumption of healthy foods ( -0.111). Only one significant moderator (restraint on stress-unhealthy eating) was identified. This meta-analysis identified the magnitude of the effect of stress on eating behaviour outcomes. Significant heterogeneity was observed that was not explained by the moderators examined. Further research on moderators of the stress-eating relationship is required and should distinguish effects for healthy versus unhealthy eating.
Topics: Adult; Eating; Emotions; Feeding Behavior; Humans
PubMed: 33913377
DOI: 10.1080/17437199.2021.1923406 -
Nature Jan 2021Animal behaviours that are superficially similar can express different intents in different contexts, but how this flexibility is achieved at the level of neural...
Animal behaviours that are superficially similar can express different intents in different contexts, but how this flexibility is achieved at the level of neural circuits is not understood. For example, males of many species can exhibit mounting behaviour towards same- or opposite-sex conspecifics, but it is unclear whether the intent and neural encoding of these behaviours are similar or different. Here we show that female- and male-directed mounting in male laboratory mice are distinguishable by the presence or absence of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), respectively. These and additional behavioural data suggest that most male-directed mounting is aggressive, although in rare cases it can be sexual. We investigated whether USV and USV mounting use the same or distinct hypothalamic neural substrates. Micro-endoscopic imaging of neurons positive for oestrogen receptor 1 (ESR1) in either the medial preoptic area (MPOA) or the ventromedial hypothalamus, ventrolateral subdivision (VMHvl) revealed distinct patterns of neuronal activity during USV and USV mounting, and the type of mounting could be decoded from population activity in either region. Intersectional optogenetic stimulation of MPOA neurons that express ESR1 and vesicular GABA transporter (VGAT) (MPOA neurons) robustly promoted USV mounting, and converted male-directed attack to mounting with USVs. By contrast, stimulation of VMHvl neurons that express ESR1 (VMHvl neurons) promoted USV mounting, and inhibited the USVs evoked by female urine. Terminal stimulation experiments suggest that these complementary inhibitory effects are mediated by reciprocal projections between the MPOA and VMHvl. Together, these data identify a hypothalamic subpopulation that is genetically enriched for neurons that causally induce a male reproductive behavioural state, and indicate that reproductive and aggressive states are represented by distinct population codes distributed between MPOA and VMHvl neurons, respectively. Thus, similar behaviours that express different internal states are encoded by distinct hypothalamic neuronal populations.
Topics: Aggression; Animals; Copulation; Estrogen Receptor alpha; Female; Homosexuality, Male; Hypothalamus; Male; Mice; Optogenetics; Preoptic Area; Sexual Behavior, Animal; Vesicular Inhibitory Amino Acid Transport Proteins
PubMed: 33268894
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2995-0 -
British Medical Bulletin Jul 2020Suicidal behaviours and non-suicidal self-harm (NSSH) are global public health concerns that affect millions of lives. (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Suicidal behaviours and non-suicidal self-harm (NSSH) are global public health concerns that affect millions of lives.
SOURCES OF DATA
This review is a narrative synthesis of systematic reviews, meta-analyses of randomized control trials (RCTs) and landmark studies published in scientific journals.
AREAS OF AGREEMENT
Restricting access to lethal means reduces the likelihood of future suicide deaths.
AREAS OF CONTROVERSY
Our ability to predict future suicidal behaviour is no better than chance. No individual risk prediction instrument offers sufficient sensitivity and specificity to inform clinically useful decision-making.
GROWING POINTS
Different types of psychosocial interventions may be effective in preventing future suicide attempts; such interventions include clinical assessment, tailored crisis response and safety plans and follow-up contact.
AREAS TIMELY FOR DEVELOPING RESEARCH
Whilst some psychosocial interventions can be effective in reducing suicide risk, little is known about the mechanisms of recovery from suicidal thoughts and behaviours.
Topics: Humans; Psychosocial Intervention; Risk Assessment; Self-Injurious Behavior; Suicidal Ideation; Suicide, Attempted; Suicide Prevention
PubMed: 32435794
DOI: 10.1093/bmb/ldaa013 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Apr 2023During their lifetime, superorganisms, like unitary organisms, undergo transformations that change the machinery of their collective behaviour. Here, we suggest that... (Review)
Review
During their lifetime, superorganisms, like unitary organisms, undergo transformations that change the machinery of their collective behaviour. Here, we suggest that these transformations are largely understudied and propose that more systematic research into the ontogeny of collective behaviours is needed if we hope to better understand the link between proximate behavioural mechanisms and the development of collective adaptive functions. In particular, certain social insects engage in self-assemblage, forming dynamic and physically connected architectures with striking similarities to developing multicellular organisms, making them good model systems for ontogenetic studies of collective behaviour. However, exhaustive time series and three-dimensional data are required to thoroughly characterize the different life stages of the collective structures and the transitions between these stages. The well-established fields of embryology and developmental biology offer practical tools and theoretical frameworks that could speed up the acquisition of new knowledge about the formation, development, maturity and dissolution of social insect self-assemblages and, by extension, other superorganismal behaviours. We hope that this review will encourage an expansion of the ontogenetic perspective in the field of collective behaviour and, in particular, in self-assemblage research, which has far-reaching applications in robotics, computer science and regenerative medicine. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Collective behaviour through time'.
Topics: Animals; Mass Behavior; Insecta; Models, Biological
PubMed: 36802780
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0065 -
Animal Cognition Nov 2020Animals travelling through the world receive input from multiple sensory modalities that could be important for the guidance of their journeys. Given the availability of... (Review)
Review
Animals travelling through the world receive input from multiple sensory modalities that could be important for the guidance of their journeys. Given the availability of a rich array of cues, from idiothetic information to input from sky compasses and visual information through to olfactory and other cues (e.g. gustatory, magnetic, anemotactic or thermal) it is no surprise to see multimodality in most aspects of navigation. In this review, we present the current knowledge of multimodal cue use during orientation and navigation in insects. Multimodal cue use is adapted to a species' sensory ecology and shapes navigation behaviour both during the learning of environmental cues and when performing complex foraging journeys. The simultaneous use of multiple cues is beneficial because it provides redundant navigational information, and in general, multimodality increases robustness, accuracy and overall foraging success. We use examples from sensorimotor behaviours in mosquitoes and flies as well as from large scale navigation in ants, bees and insects that migrate seasonally over large distances, asking at each stage how multiple cues are combined behaviourally and what insects gain from using different modalities.
Topics: Animals; Ants; Bees; Cues; Homing Behavior; Learning; Orientation
PubMed: 32323027
DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01383-2 -
Current Biology : CB Oct 2022Observing the behaviour of others is a cheap and effective way of acquiring up-to-date information about the environment. Further, an animal that changes its behaviour...
Observing the behaviour of others is a cheap and effective way of acquiring up-to-date information about the environment. Further, an animal that changes its behaviour in response to acquiring social information effectively propagates that information forwards. Although the rules that govern how individual birds detect and respond to social cues are often very simple, they are able to produce a diverse range of collective actions from which individuals can reap benefits that include predator avoidance and more accurate estimations of the environment. Understanding how and why individual-level rules that favour the emergence of collective behaviour have evolved therefore requires knowledge of the ecological and social contexts in which they are expressed. The breadth of research on social behaviours in birds is an unparalleled window into the ecology of collective behaviour and provides many opportunities to test whether different species overcome different ecological challenges using similar social rules and whether the collective behaviours of birds can act as sensors for the environment.
Topics: Animals; Social Behavior; Birds; Mass Gatherings; Social Environment; Knowledge
PubMed: 36283381
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.035 -
Cell and Tissue Research Jan 2021Mosquitoes are emerging as model systems with which to study innate behaviours through neuroethology and functional genomics. Decades of work on these disease vectors... (Review)
Review
Mosquitoes are emerging as model systems with which to study innate behaviours through neuroethology and functional genomics. Decades of work on these disease vectors have provided a solid behavioural framework describing the distinct repertoire of predominantly odour-mediated behaviours of female mosquitoes, and their dependence on life stage (intrinsic factors) and environmental cues (extrinsic factors). The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of how intrinsic factors, including adult maturation, age, nutritional status, and infection, affect the attraction to plants and feeding on plant fluids, host seeking, blood feeding, supplemental feeding behaviours, pre-oviposition behaviour, and oviposition in female mosquitoes. With the technological advancements in the recent two decades, we have gained a better understanding of which volatile organic compounds are used by mosquitoes to recognise and discriminate among various fitness-enhancing resources, and characterised their neural and molecular correlates. In this review, we present the state of the art of the peripheral olfactory system as described by the neural physiology, functional genomics, and genetics underlying the demonstrated changes in the behavioural repertoire in female mosquitoes. The review is meant as a summary introduction to the current conceptual thinking in the field.
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Culicidae; Odorants
PubMed: 33486608
DOI: 10.1007/s00441-020-03368-6 -
BMC Medical Education Feb 2022Distress and burnout are common in physicians. Both may already arise during medical training and persist throughout residency. An analysis of needs is necessary in...
BACKGROUND
Distress and burnout are common in physicians. Both may already arise during medical training and persist throughout residency. An analysis of needs is necessary in order to develop target group specific curricular concepts at medical faculties. Aim of this study was to assess the perceived stress of medical students, to explore study-related behavior and experience patterns, and to investigate associated factors.
METHODS
We conducted a cross-sectional survey of medical students at the Hannover Medical School. The web-based questionnaire consisted of 74 items and included two standardized instruments: the "Work-related Behavior and Experience Patterns" (Arbeitsbezogene Verhaltens- und Erlebensmuster, AVEM) and the "Perceived Medical School Stress" scale (PMSS). Students were asked to state their self-perceived actual stress level on a scale from 0% (no stress at all) to 100% (maximum stress). We performed a classification and regression tree (CART) analysis to identify factors that can discriminate between the four different AVEM patterns.
RESULTS
Five hundred ninety-one medical students (female 75.8%, response rate: 34.0%) participated in the survey. The mean sum score of the PMSS was 37.2 (SD 8.3; median score 37, min.-max. = 18-65). Overall, 68.5% of the students showed a risk pattern (risk pattern A "overexertion": 38.9%; risk pattern B "burnout": 29.6%). Pattern G "healthy" was shown in 8.3% and pattern S "protection" in 23.1% of the students. Multilevel analysis revealed that the self-perceived stress level and the PMSS sum score were the most important predictors for the AVEM pattern assignment. Furthermore, academic year, gender, and financial dependency were relevant influencing factors: students in higher academic years with no financial support had a higher probability to be in risk pattern B whereas male students in the first academic year tended to be in pattern G.
CONCLUSIONS
The PMSS sum score could objectify medical students' high self-perceived stress level. The majority of participating students showed a risky study-related behavior and experience pattern. Medical faculties should be aware of the still existing and relevant problem of stress and burnout among medical students. Our results lay the groundwork for an evaluation and further development of medical curricula at the own faculty.
Topics: Burnout, Professional; Burnout, Psychological; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Male; Stress, Psychological; Students, Medical; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 35197034
DOI: 10.1186/s12909-022-03182-4