Understanding resurgence and other emergent activity with the laws of allocation, induction, and covariance.

Resurgence is defined as an increase in a previously extinguished target response (B) resulting from the worsening of conditions for a more recently reinforced alternative response (B). Worsening includes extinction or reductions in rate, amount, and immediacy of delivery of food or some other phylogenetically important event (PIE). In the first part of the article, we apply the laws of allocation, induction, and covariance to understand not only resurgence of operant activity previously covarying with the PIE (B) but also a constellation of ontogenetic and phylogenetic activities both related to the PIE (B) and unrelated to the PIE (B).

A molar view of goal direction and habit.

When we treat behavior within an evolutionary framework and as temporally extended flow, two fundamental questions arise: (a) What is an organism? and (b) What is behavior? An organism is a process that stays intact by constantly exchanging energy with the environment. It takes in resources and puts out waste. The behavior of an organism consists of those process parts of the organism process that make up the exchange.

Choice and rate-amount independence in a titration procedure.

The generalized matching law or Law of Allocation proposed by Baum (2018a, 2018b) potentially provides a broad conceptual framework within which to understand the allocation of time among activities. In its simplest form, the law incorporates power-function induction of activities by variables such as rate and amount of delivered inducers. Whether these variables affect allocation independently of one another is a central issue, because independence of the variables would allow simple multiplication of power functions and would make quantitative prediction simple too.

Cellular plasticity and myeloid inflammation in the adult brain are independent of the transcriptional modulator DREAM.

The downstream regulatory element antagonist modulator (DREAM) modulates ion channel function and gene transcription. Functionally, DREAM is implicated in physiological and pathological processes including cell proliferation, inflammation, and nociception. Despite its multiple functions and robust expression in forebrain tissue, neurons and glial cells, the role of DREAM in regard to cellular plasticity and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-mediated inflammation is largely unexplored.

Rate matching, probability matching, and optimization in concurrent ratio schedules.

Much research has documented rate matching in concurrent variable-interval schedules, but comparatively little research has examined performance in concurrent variable-ratio schedules, except in discrete-trials procedures that sometimes produce probability matching. One should expect that the two types of schedule would result in different performances, because ratio schedules cannot improve with time the way interval schedules do; ratio schedules lack the temporal dynamics of interval schedules. The present experiment exposed rats to concurrent variable-ratio schedules.

Covariance, feedback, and discounting in ratio schedules.

Action-outcome relations in the everyday world are often looser than the relations programmed in the laboratory. Reinforcement theory addressed this looseness by theorizing about "delay of reinforcement." Response-reinforcer interval affects response rate and choice, but need not be thought of as delay.

Behavioral ephemera, difficult discriminations, and behavioral stability.

Every species possesses abilities for successfully interacting with its environment. These result from phylogeny. In the laboratory, one may arrange artificial conditions that thwart an organism's abilities.

Matching, induction, and covariance with mixed response-contingent food and noncontingent food.

The multiscale molar view of behavior is based on three basic laws of behavior: the Law of Allocation, the Law of Induction, and the Law of Covariance. Experiments that mix response-contingent food with noncontingent food shed light on these three laws. Food, like other phylogenetically important events, induces various activities that compete in allocation.

Resistance to extinction versus extinction as discrimination.

The hypothesis that response strength might be measured by persistence of responding in the face of extinction was discredited in the 1960s because experiments showed that responding persists longer following intermittent reinforcers than following continuous reinforcers. Instead, researchers proposed that the longer persistence following intermittent reinforcers arises because intermittent reinforcement more closely resembles extinction-a discrimination theory. Attention to resistance to extinction revived because one observation seemed to support the persistence hypothesis: Following training on a multiple schedule with unequal components, responding usually persisted longer in the formerly richer component than in the formerly lean component.

Behavior, process, and scale: Comments on Shimp (2020), "Molecular (moment-to-moment) and molar (aggregate) analyses of behavior".

If we study the behavior of organisms, we must understand the ontological status of both "organism" and "behavior." A living organism maintains itself alive by constantly interacting with the environment, taking in energy and discarding waste. Ontologically, an organism is a process.

Using Alendronic Acid Coupled Fluorescently Labelled SM Liposomes as a Vehicle for Bone Targeting.

Background: We recently developed a liposomal nanoparticle system that can be used for drug delivery and simultaneously be monitored by optical or photoacoustic imaging devices. Here we tested the efficacy of alendronate as a homing molecule in SM-liposomes for bone targeting.

Methods: Alendronate was immobilized covalently on the liposomal surface and the fluorescent dye indocyanine green was used as a payload in the liposomes.

Response-reinforcer contiguity versus response-rate-reinforcer-rate covariance in rats' lever pressing: Support for a multiscale view.

The multiscale molar view sees behavior as a flow, like a river, extended in time. Matching theory expresses the way activities compete for time. Relative time taken by any activity depends on relative induction.

Chronic Peripheral Inflammation Causes a Region-Specific Myeloid Response in the Central Nervous System.

Systemic immune dysregulation contributes to the development of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. The precise effect of chronic peripheral immune stimulation on myeloid cells across anatomical brain regions is unclear. Here, we demonstrate brain-region-specific differences in myeloid responses induced by chronic peripheral inflammation.

Matching theory and induction explain operant performance.

Matching theory is a general framework for understanding allocation of behavior among activities. It applies to choice in concurrent schedules and was extended to single schedules by assuming that other unrecorded behavior competes with operant behavior. Baum and Davison (2014) found that the competing activities apparently are induced by the "reinforcers" (phylogenetically important events, e.

A network of trans-cortical capillaries as mainstay for blood circulation in long bones.

Closed circulatory systems (CCS) underlie the function of vertebrate organs, but in long bones their structure is unclear, although they constitute the exit route for bone marrow (BM) leukocytes. To understand neutrophil emigration from BM, we studied the vascular system of murine long bones. Here we show that hundreds of capillaries originate in BM, cross murine cortical bone perpendicularly along the shaft and connect to the periosteal circulation.

Multiscale behavior analysis and molar behaviorism: An overview.

In the context of evolutionary theory, behavior is the interaction between the organism and its environment. Two implications follow: (a) behavior takes time; and (b) behavior is defined by its function. That behavior takes time implies that behavioral units are temporally extended patterns or activities.

Glucocorticoid receptor in stromal cells is essential for glucocorticoid-mediated suppression of inflammation in arthritis.

Background: Glucocorticoid (GC) therapy is frequently used to treat rheumatoid arthritis due to potent anti-inflammatory actions of GCs. Direct actions of GCs on immune cells were suggested to suppress inflammation.

Objectives: Define the role of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in stromal cells for suppression of inflammatory arthritis.

Relativity in Hearing and Stimulus Discrimination.

What does it mean to hear a sound? What does it mean to perceive anything? Sound has no objective reality, such as "vibration." Of two people together, one may hear a sound and one may not. We know only that their actions-their judgments-differ.

Upper zone of growth plate and cartilage matrix associated protein protects cartilage during inflammatory arthritis.

Background: ADAMTS aggrecanases play a major role in cartilage degeneration during degenerative and inflammatory arthritis. The cartilage-specific secreted protein Upper zone of growth plate and cartilage matrix associated protein (Ucma) has been shown to block ADAMTS-triggered aggrecanolysis in experimental osteoarthritis. Here we aimed to investigate whether and how Ucma may affect cartilage destruction and osteophyte formation in the context of inflammatory arthritis.

Concurrent variable-interval variable-ratio schedules in a dynamic choice environment.

Most studies of operant choice have focused on presenting subjects with a fixed pair of schedules across many experimental sessions. Using these methods, studies of concurrent variable- interval variable-ratio schedules helped to evaluate theories of choice. More recently, a growing literature has focused on dynamic choice behavior.

Selection by consequences, behavioral evolution, and the price equation.

Price's equation describes evolution across time in simple mathematical terms. Although it is not a theory, but a derived identity, it is useful as an analytical tool. It affords lucid descriptions of genetic evolution, cultural evolution, and behavioral evolution (often called "selection by consequences") at different levels (e.

Allocation of speech in conversation.

In a replication and extension of Conger and Killeen's (1974) widely cited demonstration of matching in conversations, we evaluated nine participants' allocation of speech and gaze to two conversational partners. German speakers participated in two 90-min sessions in which confederates uttered approval on independent variable-interval schedules. In one of the sessions, confederates uttered approval contingent upon and contiguous with eye contact whereas in the other session approval was uttered independent of the participant's gaze.

Neurodegeneration Enhances the Development of Arthritis.

The prevalence of neurodegenerative disease and arthritis increases with age. Despite both processes being associated with immune activation and inflammation, little is known about the mechanistic interactions between neurodegenerative disease and arthritis. In this article, we show that tau-transgenic (tau-tg) mice that develop neurodegenerative disease characterized by deposition of tau tangles in the brain are highly susceptible to developing arthritis.

Limits to preference and the sensitivity of choice to rate and amount of food.

Studies of choice holding food-amount ratio constant while varying food-rate ratio within sessions showed that local changes in preference depend on relative amount of food. The present study investigated whether sensitivity of choice to food-rate ratio and sensitivity to food-amount ratio are independent of one another when food-rate ratios are varied across sessions and food-amount ratios are varied within sessions. Food deliveries for rats' presses on the left and right levers were scheduled according to three different food-rate ratios of 1:1, 9:1, and 1:9; each food-rate ratio lasted for 106 sessions and was arranged independently of seven food-amount ratios (7:1, 6:2, 5:3, 4:4, 3:5, 2:6, and 1:7 food pellets) occurring within sessions in random sequence.