Folate prevents the autism-related phenotype caused by developmental pyrethroid exposure in prairie voles.

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) have dramatically increased in prevalence to an alarming one in six children, and yet both causes and preventions remain elusive. Recent human epidemiology and animal studies have implicated developmental exposure to pyrethroid pesticides, one of the most common classes of pesticides in the US, as an environmental risk factor for autism and neurodevelopmental disorders. Our previous research has shown that low-dose chronic developmental pyrethroid exposure (DPE) changes folate metabolites in the adult mouse brain.

Differences in the expression of cortex-wide neural dynamics are related to behavioral phenotype.

Behavior differs across individuals, ranging from typical to atypical phenotypes. Understanding how differences in behavior relate to differences in neural activity is critical for developing treatments of neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. One hypothesis is that differences in behavior reflect individual differences in the dynamics of how information flows through the brain.

Sexual coordination in a whole-brain map of prairie vole pair bonding.

Sexual bonds are central to the social lives of many species, including humans, and monogamous prairie voles have become the predominant model for investigating such attachments. We developed an automated whole-brain mapping pipeline to identify brain circuits underlying pair-bonding behavior. We identified bonding-related c-Fos induction in 68 brain regions clustered in seven major brain-wide neuronal circuits.

Linguistic laws in biology.

Linguistic laws, the common statistical patterns of human language, have been investigated by quantitative linguists for nearly a century. Recently, biologists from a range of disciplines have started to explore the prevalence of these laws beyond language, finding patterns consistent with linguistic laws across multiple levels of biological organisation, from molecular (genomes, genes, and proteins) to organismal (animal behaviour) to ecological (populations and ecosystems). We propose a new conceptual framework for the study of linguistic laws in biology, comprising and integrating distinct levels of analysis, from description to prediction to theory building.

Sexual coordination in a whole-brain map of prairie vole pair bonding.

Sexual bonds are central to the social lives of many species, including humans, and monogamous prairie voles have become the predominant model for investigating such attachments. We developed an automated whole-brain mapping pipeline to identify brain circuits underlying pair-bonding behavior. We identified bonding-related c-Fos induction in 68 brain regions clustered in seven major brain-wide neuronal circuits.

Individual differences in social attachment: A multi-disciplinary perspective.

Social behavior varies across both individuals and species. Research to explain this variation falls under the purview of multiple disciplines, each with its own theoretical and empirical traditions. Integration of these disciplinary traditions is key to developing a holistic perspective.

Linguistic laws in biology.

Linguistic laws, the common statistical patterns of human language, have been investigated by quantitative linguists for nearly a century. Recently, biologists from a range of disciplines have started to explore the prevalence of these laws beyond language, finding patterns consistent with linguistic laws across multiple levels of biological organisation, from molecular (genomes, genes, and proteins) to organismal (animal behaviour) to ecological (populations and ecosystems). We propose a new conceptual framework for the study of linguistic laws in biology, comprising and integrating distinct levels of analysis, from description to prediction to theory building.

Dominance style is a key predictor of vocal use and evolution across nonhuman primates.

Animal communication has long been thought to be subject to pressures and constraints associated with social relationships. However, our understanding of how the nature and quality of social relationships relates to the use and evolution of communication is limited by a lack of directly comparable methods across multiple levels of analysis. Here, we analysed observational data from 111 wild groups belonging to 26 non-human primate species, to test how vocal communication relates to dominance style (the strictness with which a dominance hierarchy is enforced, ranging from 'despotic' to 'tolerant').

A Neuroscientist's Guide to the Vole.

Prairie voles have emerged as an important rodent model for understanding the neuroscience of social behavior. Prairie voles are well known for their capacity for pair bonding and alloparental care. These behavioral phenomena overlap with human social behavior but are not commonly observed in traditional rodent models.

Vocal and locomotor coordination develops in association with the autonomic nervous system.

In adult animals, movement and vocalizations are coordinated, sometimes facilitating, and at other times inhibiting, each other. What is missing is how these different domains of motor control become coordinated over the course of development. We investigated how postural-locomotor behaviors may influence vocal development, and the role played by physiological arousal during their interactions.

Divergent acoustic properties of gelada and baboon vocalizations and their implications for the evolution of human speech.

Human speech has many complex spectral and temporal features traditionally thought to be absent in the vocalizations of other primates. Recent explorations of the vocal capabilities of non-human primates are challenging this view. Here, we continue this trend by exploring the spectro-temporal properties of gelada () vocalizations.

Gelada vocal sequences follow Menzerath's linguistic law.

Identifying universal principles underpinning diverse natural systems is a key goal of the life sciences. A powerful approach in addressing this goal has been to test whether patterns consistent with linguistic laws are found in nonhuman animals. Menzerath's law is a linguistic law that states that, the larger the construct, the smaller the size of its constituents.

Vocal complexity influences female responses to gelada male calls.

Extensive research indicates that inter-sexual selection drives the evolution of complex vocal communication in birds, but parallel lines of evidence are almost entirely absent in mammals. This dearth of evidence, particularly among primates, limits our understanding of the link between sociality and vocal complexity. Here, we use a playback experiment to quantify how wild female geladas (Theropithecus gelada) respond to three call types that are 'derived' (i.

Acoustic sequences in non-human animals: a tutorial review and prospectus.

Animal acoustic communication often takes the form of complex sequences, made up of multiple distinct acoustic units. Apart from the well-known example of birdsong, other animals such as insects, amphibians, and mammals (including bats, rodents, primates, and cetaceans) also generate complex acoustic sequences. Occasionally, such as with birdsong, the adaptive role of these sequences seems clear (e.

Derived vocalizations of geladas (Theropithecus gelada) and the evolution of vocal complexity in primates.

Primates are intensely social and exhibit extreme variation in social structure, making them particularly well suited for uncovering evolutionary connections between sociality and vocal complexity. Although comparative studies find a correlation between social and vocal complexity, the function of large vocal repertoires in more complex societies remains unclear. We compared the vocal complexity found in primates to both mammals in general and human language in particular and found that non-human primates are not unusual in the complexity of their vocal repertoires.

An experimental study of behavioural coping strategies in free-ranging female Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus).

A fundamental goal of stress research is to understand how individuals cope with challenges. Studies on a range of vertebrate species suggest that three groups of behaviour--affiliative, aggressive and self-directed behaviours--serve as coping strategies. To date, experimental studies of coping behaviour have tended to be conducted in captive conditions; the limited number of studies in free-ranging or wild settings have been observational in nature.

Flibanserin and 8-OH-DPAT implicate serotonin in association between female marmoset monkey sexual behavior and changes in pair-bond quality.

Introduction: Psychopathological origins of personally distressing, hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in women are unknown, but are generally attributed to an inhibitory neural regulator, serotonin (5-HT). Flibanserin, a 5-HT(1A) agonist and 5-HT(2A) antagonist, shows promise as a treatment for HSDD.

Aim: To test the hypothesis that female marmoset sexual behavior is enhanced by flibanserin and diminished by 8-OH-DPAT, in order to evaluate the efficacy of serotonergic modulation of female sexual behavior in a pairmate social setting comparable to humans.