Ethological and experimental approaches to behavior analysis: implications for ecotoxicology.

Cohn, Jeffrey; MacPhail, Robert C.

doi:10.1289/ehp.96104s2299

Cited by 44 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The older population is at greater risk for adverse health effects from extreme temperatures, susceptibility to disease, stresses on the food and water supply, and reduced ability to mobilize quickly (Geller & Zenick, 2005;Haq, Whiteleg, & Kohler, 2008). Older people also have heightened vulnerability to environmental threats such as exposure to neurotoxins and air pollution (Cohn & MacPhail, 1996;Stein, Schettler, Rohrer, & Valenti, 2008). Studies of the health impacts of extreme heat waves show greater effects on older people (Bouchama, 2004;Diaz et al, 2002;Klinenberg, 2002;McGeehin & Mirabelli, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Sustainability in an Aging Society: A Research Agenda

et al. 2010

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Sustainability in an Aging Society: A Research Agenda

et al. 2010

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“…The changes in social behavior observed in the present study are similar to changes observed in some of the animal models of autism (Crawley, 2007; Presti-Torres et al, 2007; Harmon et al, 2008, 2009). Overall, examining how toxicant exposure alters crucial natural behaviors using controlled laboratory techniques is very important in the developing field of ‘ecotoxicology’ (Cohn and MacPhail, 1996). This fusion of natural observation and experimentation could reveal important insights into behavioral dynamics of development and provide an understanding of the ways toxicants are harmful and ways to possibly prevent this harm.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perinatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls alters social behaviors in rats

et al. 2010

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Perinatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) leads to significant alterations of neural and hormonal systems. These alterations have been shown to impair motor and sensory development. Less is known about the influence of PCB exposure on developing emotional and motivational systems involved in social interactions and social learning. The present study examined the impact of perinatal PCB exposure (mixture of congeners 47 and 77) on social recognition in juvenile animals, conspecific-directed investigation in adults and on neural and hormonal systems involved in social functions. We used a standard habituation–dishabituation paradigm to evaluate juvenile recognition and a social port paradigm to monitor adult social investigation. Areal measures of the periventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus were obtained to provide correlations with related hormone and brain systems. PCB exposed rats were significantly impaired in social recognition as indicated by persistent conspecific-directed exploration by juvenile animals regardless of social experience. As adults, PCB exposure led to a dampening of the isolation-induced enhancement of social investigation. There was not a concomitant alteration of social investigation in pair-housed PCB exposed animals at this stage of development. Interestingly, PVN area was significantly decreased in juvenile animals exposed to PCB during the perinatal period. Shifts in hypothalamic regulation of hormones involved in social behavior and stress could be involved in the behavioral changes observed. Overall, the results suggest that PCB exposure impairs context or experience-dependent modulation of social approach and investigation. These types of social-context deficits are similar to behavioral deficits observed in social disorders such as autism and other pervasive developmental disorders.

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“…Such training can be achieved through conditioned taste aversion (CTA). Conditioned taste aversion is a powerful innate response found across all vertebrates; an evolved defence mechanism against poisoning (Sinclair & Bird ; Conover ; Cohn & MacPhail ; Bernstein ; Mappes et al . ; Page & Ryan ; Glendinning ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not such silly sausages: Evidence suggests northern quolls exhibit aversion to toads after training with toad sausages

et al. 2018

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The invasion of toxic cane toads (Rhinella marina) is a major threat to northern quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus) which are poisoned when they attack this novel prey item. Quolls are now endangered as a consequence of the toad invasion. Conditioned taste aversion can be used to train individual quolls to avoid toads, but we currently lack a training technique that can be used at a landscape scale to buffer entire populations from toad impact. Broad-scale deployment requires a bait that can be used for training, but there is no guarantee that such a bait will ultimately elicit aversion to toads. Here, we test a manufactured baita 'toad sausage'in a small captive trial, for its ability to elicit aversion to toads in northern quolls. To do this, we exposed one group of quolls to a toad sausage and another to a control sausage and compared the quolls' predatory responses when presented with a dead adult toad. Captive quolls that consumed a single toad sausage showed a reduced interest in cane toads, interacting with them for less than half the time of their untrained counterparts and showing reduced Attack behaviour. We also quantified bait uptake in the field, by both quolls and non-target species. These field trials showed that wild quolls were the most frequent species attracted to the baits, and that approx. 61% of quolls consumed toad-aversion baits when first encountered. Between 40% and 68% of these animals developed aversion to further bait consumption. Our results suggest that toad-aversion sausages may be used to train wild quolls to avoid cane toads. This opens the possibility for broad-scale quoll training with toad aversion sausages: a technique that may allow wildlife managers to prevent quoll extinctions at a landscape scale.

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Ethological and experimental approaches to behavior analysis: implications for ecotoxicology.

Cited by 44 publications

References 39 publications

Environmental Sustainability in an Aging Society: A Research Agenda

Environmental Sustainability in an Aging Society: A Research Agenda

Perinatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls alters social behaviors in rats

Not such silly sausages: Evidence suggests northern quolls exhibit aversion to toads after training with toad sausages

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