Behavior

Cricket's finicky mating behavior boosts biodiversity

Biologists at Lehigh University and the University of Maryland have identified a cricket living in Hawaii's forests as the world's fastest-evolving invertebrate. Females in the Laupala genus detect tiny differenc...

Remote control flies? Fly behavior controlled by laser light

Yale University School of Medicine researchers have found a way to exercise a little mind control over fruit flies, making the flies jump, beat their wings, and fly on command by triggering genetic "remote controls" that the scientists designed and installed in the insects' central nervous systems, accordi...

Researchers use 3-D imaging system to unveil swimming behavior of microscopic plankton

From the surface, the ocean appears to be vast and uniform. But beneath the surface, tiny animals called zooplankton are swept into clusters and patches by ocean currents. The very survival of many zooplankton predators--from invertebrates to whales--and the success of fishermen catches can depend on their success at finding those patches. For almost a century ocean scientists have suspect...

New clue to cocaine addicts' quirky behavior

Researchers working with rats have zeroed in on the brain circuitry mechanism whose disruption contributes to the impulsive behavior seen in users of cocaine as well as other psychostimulant drugs. The same circuitry has been implicated in such disorders as schizophrenia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, wrote the researchers. Yukiori Goto and Anthony A. Grace of the Univers...

Movie spies on malaria parasite's sneaky behavior

Malaria has been outsmarting the human immune system for centuries. Now, using real-time imaging to track malaria infections in live mice, researchers have discovered one of the parasite's sneakiest tricks--using dead liver cells to cloak and transport itself back into the bloodstream after leaving the liver. Robert Ménard, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research s...

Gap-climbing fruit flies reveal components of goal-driven behaviors

Like humans, other animals are faced with everyday obstacles in their physical environments and must engage appropriate decision-making and motor skills to deal with them. Navigating these obstacles can involve highly complex events in mammals and other vertebrates, but in new work, researchers have employed an ingenious obstacle-based system for studying the control and structure of goal-oriente...

Study identifies gene in mice that may control risk-taking behavior in humans

One teenager likes to snowboard off a cliff. Another prefers to read a book and wouldn't think of trading places. Why these differences exist is a mystery, but for the first time researchers have identified a possible genetic explanation behind risk-seeking behavior. Scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have found that a specific neurodevelopmental gene, called neuroD2, is...

Rensselaer researchers develop approach that predicts protein separation behavior

Applying math and computers to the drug-discovery process, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a method to predict protein separation behavior directly from protein structure. This new multi-scale protein modeling approach may reduce the time it takes to bring pharmaceuticals to market and may have significant implications for an array of biotechnology applications, inc...

Rodent social behavior encoded in junk DNA

A discovery that may someday help to explain human social behavior and disorders such as autism has been made in a species of pudgy rodents by researchers funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). The researchers traced social behavior traits, such as monogamy, to seeming glitc...

Scientists uncover new clues about brain function in human behavior

Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, have discovered a genetically controlled brain mechanism responsible for social behavior in humans--one of the most important but least understood aspects of human nature. The findings are reported in Nature Neuroscience, published online on July 10, 2005. The study compared the brains...

Single gene is genetic switch for fly sexual behavior

A male fly's sexual courtship of a female fly is a complicated business of tapping, singing, wing vibration, and licking, but a single gene is all that is needed to produce this complex behavior, according to new research published in this week's issue of the journal Cell. The gene encodes the Fruitless protein. Male and female flies carry different versions of the fruitless protein, as a...

Using the genomic shortcut to predict bacterial behavior

Turning plants such as corn, soybeans and sunflowers into fuel uses much more energy than the resulting ethanol or biodiesel generates, according to a new Cornell University and University of California-Berkeley study. "There is just no energy benefit to using plant biomass for liquid fuel," says David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell. "These strategies are not su...

Researchers use brain scans to predict behavior

By peering into the minds of volunteers preparing to play a brief visual game, neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found they can predict whether the volunteers will succeed or fail at the game. "Before we present the task, we can use brain activity to predict with about 70 percent accuracy whether the subject will give a correct or an incorrect r...

Past experience of pheromones induces dominant courtship behavior in fruit flies

By investigating the interplay between pheromone signaling and behavior in fruit flies, researchers have begun to understand how an adult fly's earlier experience as a young individual can influence its behavior towards other flies as an adult. In particular, the researchers found that pheromone signals in the context of experience with adult flies can influence how young flies will behave once t...

Brainstem blocks pain to protect key behaviors

Certain behaviors, such as eating, drinking and urinating, are so crucial to survival that the brains of all vertebrates contain clusters of nerve cells that can suppress pain long enough to allow the animal to eat, drink -- or pee -- in peace. A report from researchers at the University of Chicago, published early online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that...

Algal protein in worm neurons allows remote control of behavior by light

By introducing expression of a special green-algae gene into neurons of the tiny, transparent nematode C. elegans, researchers have been able to elicit specific behavioral responses by simply illuminating animals with blue light. The work paves the way for better understanding of how neurons communicate with each other, and with muscles, to regulate behavior in intact, living organisms. Generally...

Environmental tobacco smoke linked to behavior problems in children and pre-teens

A new Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study shows that exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, even at extremely low levels, is associated with behavior problems in children and pre-teens. While the study examined 5 to 11 year olds with asthma, the findings most likely could be extrapolated to include children without asthma who "act out" or experience depression and anxiety...

Infection 'alarm' yields clues to immune system behavior

Drawing on lab experiments and computer studies, Johns Hopkins researchers have learned how a common protein delivers its warning message to cells when an infectious agent invades the body. The findings are important because this biological intruder alarm causes the body's immune system to leap into action to fight the infection. Learning more about how this process works, the researchers said, c...

Manipulating single cell receptor alters animal behavior

Researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Pennsylvania were the first to demonstrate that two intracellular events, both stimulated by the same cell receptor, can provoke different behaviors in mammals. The broad implication of the findings may alter the way behavioral neuroscientists think about sub-cellular underpinnings of mammalian behavior, according to the resear...

Ancient DNA provides clues to the evolution of social behavior

A rare Patagonian rodent known as the colonial tuco-tuco fascinates biologists because it seems to defy all odds. This threatened species has so little genetic diversity that the slightest whiff of climate change or disease should have wiped it off the face of the earth long ago. Yet the hearty gopher-like creature has not only managed to survive for thousands of years in the harsh climate of the...

Behavioral studies show UV contributes to marsupial color vision

Work reported this week provides new evidence that marsupials, like primates, have functional color vision based on three different types of color photoreceptor cones--but unlike primates, a component of marsupial color vision includes sensitivity to ultraviolet wavelengths. In the study, researchers employed behavioral tests to show that at least one type of marsupial uses its detection...

Hap1 protein links circulating insulin to brain circuits that regulate feeding behavior in mice

Researchers have discovered how the protein Hap1, which is abundant in the brain's hypothalamus, serves as the link between circulating insulin in the blood and the neural circuitry that controls feeding behavior in mice. Illumination of the neural pathway used by hormones to regulate appetite and eating behavior could eventually provide new drug targets for treating eating disorders and o...

ASU researchers find link between social behavior, maternal traits in bees

One of the puzzling questions in the evolution of bees is how some species developed social behaviors. Arizona State University Life Sciences associate professor Gro Amdam thinks part of the answer can be traced back to bee reproductive traits. A paper describing Amdam's experiments, "Complex social behavior derived from maternal reproductive traits," is the cover story of the current iss...

Sex chromosome genes influence aggression andmaternal behavior, say UVa researchers

It has been well documented that, across human cultures and in most mammals, males are usually more aggressive and less nurturing than females. It's simple to blame male hormones, like testosterone, for male behavior such as aggression. But maybe it's in our genes, too. Indeed such social behavior also has a genetic basis, according to new research on mice by neuroscientists at the Univers...

Chimpanzees can transmit cultural behavior to multiple 'generations'

Transferring knowledge through a chain of generations is a behavior not exclusive to humans, according to new findings by researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University and the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. For the first time, researchers have shown chimpanzees exhibit generational learning behavior similar to that in humans. Unlike previous findings that in...

Human behavior changes the number of strains of infectious diseases

Simple models predict that only one strain of an infectious disease can exist at one time, but observation suggests otherwise. In a study in the August issue of The American Naturalist, Ken Eames and Matt Keeling (University of Warwick) use a mathematical model to help explain multiple strains, showing that the way humans interact is all-important. The researchers found that the coexistence of mu...

Fly's courtship sheds light on the formation of innate behaviors

By studying how genes influence the development and use of neural circuits that control a specific set of mating behaviors in the fruit fly, researchers have provided new insight into how instinctual behaviors ?those that are not based on prior experience ?arise in the developing nervous system. The work is reported by Jean-Christophe Billeter and other members of Stephen Goodwin's group at the U...

Honey bee genome holds clues to social behavior

By studying the humble honey bee, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have come a step closer to understanding the molecular basis of social behavior in humans. "The honey bee (Apis millifera) has been called a model system for social behavior," said Saurabh (pronounced SAW-rub) Sinha, a professor of computer science and an affiliate of the university's Institute...

Study offers window into human behavior, brain disease

UCSF scientists have identified a cell population that is a primary target of the degenerative brain disease known as frontotemporal dementia, which is as common as Alzheimer's disease in patients who develop dementia before age 65. Because the cells arose only recently in evolutionary history -- in a common ancestor of great apes and humans-- and are particularly abundant in humans, and...

Advance helps explain stem cell behavior

Biochemists at Oregon State University have developed a new method to identify the "DNA-binding transcription factors" that help steer stem cells into forming the wide variety of cells that ultimately make up all the organs and parts of a living vertebrate animal. The findings were made using mouse embryonic spinal cord as a model, and will be announced this week in Proceedings of the Nat...

Newly discovered behavior in cancer cells signals dangerous metastasis

The most aggressively malignant cancer cells have a "toggle switch" that enables them to morph into highly mobile cells that invade other tissues and then nest comfortably in their new surroundings, a new study in rats suggests. This picture of how cancer cells shift between two alternating states -- travelers and nesters -- represents a new understanding of how cancer metastasizes, or spr...

Math model predicts cancer behavior

Vito Quaranta clicks on a small black dot on his computer screen. The dot ?which represents about a thousand cancer cells ?begins to "grow," morphing into a mass with finger-like projections that looks like an invasive tumor. The Vanderbilt professor of cancer biology envisions a future when computer simulations like this will be used to predict a tumor's clinical progression and formulate...

New compound prevents alcoholic behavior, relapse in animals by blocking stress response

A study of alcohol-dependent animals shows that a newly discovered compound that blocks chemical signals active during the brain’s response to stress effectively stops excessive drinking and prevents relapse. The new, synthetic compound, known as MTIP, also muted the anxiety that typically develops in rats experiencing the equivalent of a hangover. Such stress is linked with higher levels...

Good behavior, religiousness may be genetic

A new study in Journal of Personality shows that selfless and social behavior is not purely a product of environment, specifically religious environment. After studying the behavior of adult twins, researchers found that, while altruistic behavior and religiousness tended to appear together, the correlation was due to both environmental and genetic factors. According to study author Laura...

Survival of the rarest: Fruit flies shed light on the evolution of behavior

Sometimes, it pays to be rare—think of a one-of-a-kind diamond, a unique Picasso or the switch-hitter on a baseball team. Now, new research suggests that being rare has biological benefits. Professor Marla Sokolowski, a biologist at the University of Toronto Mississauga who in the 1980s discovered that a single gene affects the foraging behaviour of fruit flies, has identified the benefit...