Video recording is a common method to study animal behaviour. In honey bee studies, short video-recordings are often used to learn more about a behaviour, but rarely used for their quantification. Standard methods for observing bee behaviour involve behavioural assays or direct observation of a limited subset of marked bees within an observation hive. This means that behaviour at the hive entrance may be overlooked. Here we describe a 4-camera set up for the study of behaviour at hive entrances. With minimal disturbance, we were able to record and quantify all previously described behaviours (9 in total - including self-grooming in drones) on and around the hive entrance. We briefly discuss the general feasibility of video footage and the relative frequency of each observed behaviour. Our conclusion is that video footage is a useful and perhaps overlooked method for unbiased quantification and comparisons of bee behaviour at the hive entrance. With this paper we are publishing some example short video-recordings as online supplementary material for educational purposes.
Typically developing humans innately place subjective value on social informa- tion and orient attention to it. This can be shown through eye tracking and pupillometry, a method used to show attentional engagement. Social brain de- velopment and social preference is present from infancy, and is thought to rely on a carefully balanced network of neurotransmitters and neural connections. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) presents altered neural systems which cause individuals to perceive and process social information di↵erently, but the neuro- physiology of this di↵erence remains unclear. Previous research shows atypical gaze patterns, hyperarousal, and lack of orienting to social stimuli in ASD. Since autism is highly comorbid and shares traits with other neurodevelopmental dis- orders, it is dicult to distinguish aspects of these social processing di↵erences. This study used a group of 35 neuropsychiatric patients to investigate how in- dividuals with autism process social and non-social scenes. Eye tracking and pupillometry measures were collected while participants observed images of nat- ural scenes with or without a person. Participants with autism did not show a pupillary response to social images and were slower to fixate on the face re- gion than the other participants. Additionally there were correlations between clinical measures of social functioning and the length of time it took to fixate to faces. The results highlight important distinctions of social processing in autism. This thesis proposes a new perspective of looking at the social deficits present in autism spectrum disorder. It suggests reframing the current discus- sion from two leading hypotheses to a unified approach and formally considering the limitations of di↵ering types of stimuli.
The snake detection hypothesis claims that predatory pressure from snakes has shaped the primate visual system, but we still know very little about how the brain processes evolutionarily important visual cues, and which factors are crucial for quick detection of snakes. We investigated how visual features modulate the electrophysiological markers of early attentional processes. In Experiment 1, we compared snake, rope, gun, and bird images to isolate the effects due to curvilinearity of the stimuli. The results showed that both snake and rope images elicited enhanced P1 and N1 event-related potential components as well as early posterior negativity (EPN). In Experiment 2, we studied whether nonthreatening curvilinear images (i.e., ropes) still elicit the enhanced electrophysiological responses when snake images are not presented as stimuli, and therefore the context does not provoke top-down attention to curvilinear shapes. Rope images still evoked an enhanced EPN, suggesting that curvilinear shapes are preferably captured by attentional processes. However, this effect was smaller than in Experiment 1, in which snake images were present. Thus, our results hint to the possibility that the perceptual context may interact with processing of shape information, drawing attention to curvilinear shapes when the presence of snakes is expectable. Furthermore, we observed that spatial frequency of the visual stimuli modulated especially the early electrophysiological responses, and decreased the differences between stimulus categories in EPN without completely eliminating them. The findings suggest that low-level and high-level mechanisms interact to give an attentional priority to potentially threatening stimuli.
The aim of the present thesis was to investigate hormonal and physiological effects in mothers during a breastfeeding session and in dogs and their owners in response to short-term interaction. In study one, sixty-six mothers receiving either exogenous oxytocin infusion and/or epidural analgesia (EDA) during labor or intramuscular oxytocin injection post partum were studied. Oxytocin, prolactin, adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and cortisol levels, as well as blood pressure were measured during a breastfeeding session two days after birth. In response to breastfeeding two days after birth, the mothers displayed a pulsatile release of oxytocin and increasing prolactin levels. In addition, the activity in the HPA-axis was reduced and maternal blood pressure decreased. The results also show that EDA administration in combination with oxytocin during labor resulted insignificantly lower oxytocin levels and higher cortisol levels, as well as higher bloodpressure in response to breastfeeding two days after birth, compared to EDA administration alone. In addition, oxytocin infusions dose-dependently lowered the mothers’ endogenous oxytocin levels two days after birth. In study two, ten female dog owners and their male Labrador dogs participated, together with ten controls. Their levels of oxytocin, cortisol and insulin, as well as their heart rate, were measured. The connection between the quality of the dogowner relationship and hormone levels was also explored. Short-term interaction between dogs and their owners resulted in oxytocin release in both species and their cortisol levels and heart rate were also affected. Oxytocin levels and positive attitudes regarding the dog-owner relationship were positively correlated. In conclusion, both human-human and human-animal interactions induce oxytocin release and promote oxytocin mediated effects, such as decreasing cortisol levels and blood pressure. In addition, social interaction and oxytocin levels arepositively related.
The aim of this exploratory study was to determine heart rate and the levels of oxytocin, cortisol, and insulin in dogs and their owners in response to a short-term interaction. In addition, the dogs' behavior was studied. The owners' responses were compared with those obtained from a control group. Ten female volunteers and their own male Labrador dogs participated in an experiment during which the owner stroked, petted, and talked with her dog during the first 3 minutes. Blood samples were collected from both dog and owner before (0) and at 1, 3, 5, 15, 30, and 60 minutes after the start of the interaction. Blood samples were analyzed by EIA. Heart rate was monitored telemetrically. The data were analyzed using linear mixed models and paired t-tests. The dogs' oxytocin levels were significantly increased 3 minutes after the start of the interaction (p = 0.027). Cortisol levels were significantly increased after 15 and 30 minutes (p = 0.004 and p = 0.022, respectively), and heart rate was significantly decreased after 55 minutes (p = 0.008). The dogs displayed normal behaviors during the experiment. The owners' oxylocin levels peaked between 1 and 5 minutes after interaction (p = 0.026). No such effect was seen in the controls. Cortisol levels displayed a significant decrease at 15 or 30 minutes in both owners and controls, and insulin levels did so at 60 minutes (p = 0.030, p = 0.002 and p = 0.002, p < 0.0001, respectively). Heart rate decreased significantly in the owners at 55 and 60 minutes (p = 0.0008) but not in the controls. In conclusion, short-term sensory interaction between dogs and their owners influences hormonal levels and heart rate. However, further studies need to be performed in order to better understand the effects of interaction between dogs and their owners.
The aim of the present study was to explore possible correlations between dog owners' relationships with their dogs, as measured with the Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale (MDORS), and oxytocin and cortisol levels in both the owners and their dogs. Ten female owners of male Labrador Retrievers completed the MDORS. The scores obtained from the single items, subscales, and total score of the MDORS were calculated. Ten blood samples were collected from each dog owner and her dog during a 60-minute interaction. Blood samples were analyzed for oxytocin and cortisol by Enzyme Immuno Assay (EIA) and mean values of oxytocin and cortisol were calculated in both owners and dogs. The MDORS scores obtained were correlated with basal and mean oxytocin and cortisol levels. The correlation analysis revealed some relationships between the scores of items in the MDORS that reflect the character of the dog-owner-relationship and the owners' hormone levels. For example, higher oxytocin levels in the owners were associated with greater frequency in kissing their dogs (rs = 0.864, p = 0.001). Lower cortisol levels in the owners were associated with their perception that it will be more traumatic when their dog dies (rs = -0.730, p = 0.025). The correlation analysis also revealed some relationships between the scores of items in the MDORS and the dogs' hormone levels. For example, greater frequency in owners kissing their dogs was associated with higher oxytocin levels in the dogs (rs = 0.753, p = 0.029). Six items in the subscale Perceived Costs, as well as the subscale itself, correlated significantly with the dogs' oxytocin levels (rs = 0.820, p = 0.007), that is, the lower the perceived cost, the higher the dogs' oxytocin levels. In addition, significant correlations between the oxytocin levels of the owners and the dogs were demonstrated. Possible mechanisms behind these correlations are discussed. In conclusion, the scores of some items and the subscales of the MDORS correlated with oxytocin, and to a lesser extent cortisol, levels in both the owners and dogs.
The neural mechanisms associated with hypnosis were investigated in a group of 9 high hypnotizable subjects by measuring the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the auditory eventrelated potential (ERP). ERPs were recorded using a passive oddball paradigm to sinusoidal standard and deviant tone stimuli of 500 and 520 Hz, respectively, in four conditions: prehypnosis, neutral hypnosis, hypnotic suggestion for altering the tone perception, and posthypnotic conditions. Earlier studies have indicated that hypnosis and hypnotic suggestions might have an effect on MMN, but the results of our study contradict these results: No statistically significant differences were found between the conditions in the MMN amplitudes.
Human height variation is determined by genetic and environmental factors, but it remains unclear whether their influences differ across birth-year cohorts. We conducted an individual-based pooled analysis of 40 twin cohorts including 143,390 complete twin pairs born 1886–1994. Although genetic variance showed a generally increasing trend across the birth-year cohorts, heritability estimates (0.69-0.84 in men and 0.53-0.78 in women) did not present any clear pattern of secular changes. Comparing geographic-cultural regions (Europe, North America and Australia, and East Asia), total height variance was greatest in North America and Australia and lowest in East Asia, but no clear pattern in the heritability estimates across the birth-year cohorts emerged. Our findings do not support the hypothesis that heritability of height is lower in populations with low living standards than in affluent populations, nor that heritability of height will increase within a population as living standards improve.
Oakley and colleagues (2021) suggest that a classic scale – HGSHS:A, aiming to measure hypnotic suggestibility – can be used to measure direct verbal suggestibility (DVS). According to the authors, DVS is a trait that can be measured both with and without hypnosis. I find this initiative highly welcome. However, I wish to give several examples why it is time to develop entirely new scales instead. Rather than trying to explain more phenomena with a single scale or concept, researchers should take a cue from research that points to a far more nuanced picture of suggestibility than a construct like DVS allows. There may be no single, unified phenomenon that can be measured with a single scale. The old, time-tested scales should be treated neither as sacred nor final. They require up-to-date, critical analysis of what exactly they measure, with an eye to how they can be further improved.
Are synaesthetic experiences congenital and so hard-wired, or can a functional analogue be created? We induced an equivalent of form-colour synaesthesia using hypnotic suggestions in which symbols in an array (circles, crosses, squares) were suggested always to have a certain colour. In a Stroop type-naming task, three of the four highly hypnotizable participants showed a strong synaesthesia-type association between symbol and colour. This was verified both by their subjective reports and objective eye-movement behaviour. Two resembled a projector-and one an associator-type synaesthete. Participant interviews revealed that subjective experiences differed somewhat from typical (congenital) synaesthesia. Control participants who mimicked the task using cognitive strategies showed a very different response pattern. Overall, the results show that the targeted, preconsciously triggered associations and perceptual changes seen in association with congenital synaesthesia can rapidly be induced by hypnosis. They suggest that each participant's subjective experience of the task should be carefully evaluated, especially when studying hypnotic hallucinations. Studying such experiences can increase understanding of perception, automaticity, and awareness and open unique opportunities in cognitive neuroscience and consciousness research.
Sammanfattningsvis är mitt förslag således att medvetandets natur är relaterad till fundamentala teorier inom fysiken, särskilt kvantteorin (jämför Hameroff och Penrose, 2014). Detta innebär inte att medvetandet kan reduceras till kvantteori, men att kvantteori kan spela en viktig roll när vi letar efter en plats för medvetandet i vår naturuppfattning. Annars finns risken att vi får nöja oss med en materialism där medvetandet saknar plats och roll, eller en dualism där medvetandet är ett epifenomen utan några kausala krafter (se Pylkkänen, 2007, 2017).
Primary visual cortex (V1) and extrastriate V2 are necessary for the emergence of visual consciousness, but the effects of involvement of extrastriate V3 on visual consciousness is unclear. The objective of this study was to examine the causal role of V3 in visual consciousness in humans. We combined neuronavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with a computational model of the TMS-induced electric field to test whether or not the intact processing of visual input in V3, like in V1 and V2, is necessary for conscious visual perception. We targeted the stimulation both to V2 and to V3. If TMS of V3 blocks conscious visual perception of stimuli, then activation in V3 is a causally necessary prerequisite for conscious perception of stimuli. According to the alternative hypothesis, TMS of V3 will not block the conscious visual perception of stimuli, because the pathways from V1 to the higher cortical areas that go around V3 provide sufficient visual input for the emergence of conscious visual perception. The results showed that TMS interfered with conscious perception of features, detection of stimulus presence and the ability to discriminate the letter stimuli both when TMS was targeted either to V3 or to V2. For the conscious detection of stimulus presence, the effect was significantly stronger when V2 was stimulated than when V3 was stimulated. The results of the present study suggest that in addition to the primary visual cortex and V2, also V3 causally contributes to the generation of the most basic form of visual consciousness. Importantly, the results also indicate that V3 is necessary for visual perception in general, not only for visual consciousness.
Attention is one of the key factors in both hypnotic processes and patients with ADHD. In addition, the brain areas associated with hypnosis and ADHD overlap in many respects. However, the use of hypnosis in ADHD patients has still received only minor attention in research. The main purpose of the present work was to investigate whether hypnosis and hypnotic suggestions influence the performance of adult ADHD (n = 27) and control participants (n = 31) in the continuous performance test (CPT). The hypnotic susceptibility of the participants was measured by the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS:A) and the attentional task was a three minute long auditory version of the CPT. The CPT task was administered four times: before hypnosis (CPT1), after a hypnotic induction (CPT2), after suggestions about speed and accuracy (CPT3), and after the termination of hypnosis (CPT4). The susceptibility of the groups measured by HGSHS:A did not differ. There was a statistically significant decrease in reaction times in both ADHD and control groups between CPT2 and CPT3. The differences between CPT1 and CPT2, even though non-significant, were different in the two groups: in the ADHD group reaction times decreased whereas in the control group they increased. Both groups made very few errors in the short CPT. This study indicates that hypnotic suggestions have an effect on reaction times in the sustained attention task both in adult ADHD patients and control subjects. The theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.