TY  - JOUR
A1  - Popp, Sandy
A1  - Schmitt-Böhrer, Angelika
A1  - Langer, Simon
A1  - Hofmann, Ulrich
A1  - Hommers, Leif
A1  - Schuh, Kai
A1  - Frantz, Stefan
A1  - Lesch, Klaus-Peter
A1  - Frey, Anna
T1  - 5-HTT Deficiency in Male Mice Affects Healing and Behavior after Myocardial Infarction
JF  - Journal of Clinical Medicine
N2  - Anxiety disorders and depression are common comorbidities in cardiac patients. Mice lacking the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) exhibit increased anxiety-like behavior. However, the role of 5-HTT deficiency on cardiac aging, and on healing and remodeling processes after myocardial infarction (MI), remains unclear. Cardiological evaluation of experimentally naïve male mice revealed a mild cardiac dysfunction in ≥4-month-old 5-HTT knockout (−/−) animals. Following induction of chronic cardiac dysfunction (CCD) by MI vs. sham operation 5-HTT−/− mice with infarct sizes >30% experienced 100% mortality, while 50% of 5-HTT+/− and 37% of 5-HTT+/+ animals with large MI survived the 8-week observation period. Surviving (sham and MI < 30%) 5-HTT−/− mutants displayed reduced exploratory activity and increased anxiety-like behavior in different approach-avoidance tasks. However, CCD failed to provoke a depressive-like behavioral response in either 5-Htt genotype. Mechanistic analyses were performed on mice 3 days post-MI. Electrocardiography, histology and FACS of inflammatory cells revealed no abnormalities. However, gene expression of inflammation-related cytokines (TGF-β, TNF-α, IL-6) and MMP-2, a protein involved in the breakdown of extracellular matrix, was significantly increased in 5-HTT−/− mice after MI. This study shows that 5-HTT deficiency leads to age-dependent cardiac dysfunction and disrupted early healing after MI probably due to alterations of inflammatory processes in mice.
KW  - chronic heart failure
KW  - myocardial infarction
KW  - serotonin transporter deficient mice
KW  - anxiety
KW  - depression
KW  - behavior
KW  - inflammation
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242739
SN  - 2077-0383
VL  - 10
IS  - 14
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fischer, Matthias
A1  - Raabe, Thomas
T1  - Animal models for Coffin-Lowry syndrome: RSK2 and nervous system dysfunction
JF  - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
N2  - Loss of function mutations in the rsk2 gene cause Coffin-Lowry syndrome (CLS), which is associated with multiple symptoms including severe mental disabilities. Despite the characterization of ribosomal S6 kinase 2 (RSK2) as a protein kinase acting as a downstream effector of the well characterized ERK MAP-kinase signaling pathway, it turns out to be a challenging task to link RSK2 to specific neuronal processes dysregulated in case of mutation. Animal models such as mouse and Drosophila combine advanced genetic manipulation tools with in vivo imaging techniques, high-resolution connectome analysis and a variety of behavioral assays, thereby allowing for an in-depth analysis for gene functions in the nervous system. Although modeling mental disability in animal systems has limitations because of the complexity of phenotypes, the influence of genetic variation and species-specific characteristics at the neural circuit and behavioral level, some common aspects of RSK2 function in the nervous system have emerged, which will be presented. Only with this knowledge our understanding of the pathophysiology of CLS can be improved, which might open the door for development of potential intervention strategies.
KW  - Coffin-Lowry syndrome
KW  - RSK2
KW  - mental disorders
KW  - mouse model
KW  - Drosophila model
KW  - neuronal dysfunction
KW  - behavior
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-176799
VL  - 12
IS  - 106
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Feldheim, Jonas
A1  - Kessler, Almuth F.
A1  - Feldheim, Julia J.
A1  - Schmitt, Dominik
A1  - Oster, Christoph
A1  - Lazaridis, Lazaros
A1  - Glas, Martin
A1  - Ernestus, Ralf-Ingo
A1  - Monoranu, Camelia M.
A1  - Löhr, Mario
A1  - Hagemann, Carsten
T1  - BRMS1 in gliomas — an expression analysis
JF  - Cancers
N2  - The metastatic suppressor BRMS1 interacts with critical steps of the metastatic cascade in many cancer entities. As gliomas rarely metastasize, BRMS1 has mainly been neglected in glioma research. However, its interaction partners, such as NFκB, VEGF, or MMPs, are old acquaintances in neurooncology. The steps regulated by BRMS1, such as invasion, migration, and apoptosis, are commonly dysregulated in gliomas. Therefore, BRMS1 shows potential as a regulator of glioma behavior. By bioinformatic analysis, in addition to our cohort of 118 specimens, we determined BRMS1 mRNA and protein expression as well as its correlation with the clinical course in astrocytomas IDH mutant, CNS WHO grade 2/3, and glioblastoma IDH wild-type, CNS WHO grade 4. Interestingly, we found BRMS1 protein expression to be significantly decreased in the aforementioned gliomas, while BRMS1 mRNA appeared to be overexpressed throughout. This dysregulation was independent of patients’ characteristics or survival. The protein and mRNA expression differences cannot be finally explained at this stage. However, they suggest a post-transcriptional dysregulation that has been previously described in other cancer entities. Our analyses present the first data on BRMS1 expression in gliomas that can provide a starting point for further investigations.
KW  - glioblastoma
KW  - metastasis
KW  - suppressor
KW  - behavior
KW  - mRNA
KW  - protein
Y1  - 2023
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-319225
SN  - 2072-6694
VL  - 15
IS  - 11
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Strack, Fritz
A1  - Pauli, Paul
A1  - Weyers, Peter
T1  - Editorial: Emotion and Behavior
JF  - Frontiers in Psychology
N2  - No abstract available.
KW  - emotions
KW  - behavior
KW  - approach
KW  - avoidance
KW  - impulsive behavior
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190177
SN  - 1664-1078
VL  - 7
IS  - 313
ER  - 
TY  - THES
A1  - Frey, Monika
T1  - Effects and mechanisms of a putative human pheromone
T1  - Effekte und Mechanismen eines putativen menschlichen Pheromons
N2  - There is evidence that pheromones are communicative signals in animals. However, the existence and function of human pheromones are still under discussion. During the last years several substances have been labeled as putative human pheromones and especially 4,16–androstadien-3-one (androstadienone), found in male and female sweat, became subject of intense investigation. In contrast to common odors androstadienone presumably modulates human physiological and psychological reactions. Data suggest that androstadienone might influence the processing of visual cues, specifically faces or affective stimuli, via projections from the fusiform gyrus and the amygdala. Moreover, attentional processes may be modulated, which is supported by explicit and implicit behavioral data. This thesis includes three experimental studies examining effects of androstadienone exposure on behavioral and cortical reactions to visual and emotional stimuli. The main hypotheses were that androstadienone might influence human behavior to and perception of visual cues. The first study sought to clarify androstadienone effects on attention-related reactions as well as on behavioral tendencies. Motoric approach-avoidance reactions in response to happy and angry facial expressions were investigated in 30 women and 32 men. Participants either inhaled androstadienone or a control solution, without knowing the real content, while performing the following task: they had to push away or to pull towards them a joystick as fast as possible in reaction to either an angry or a happy cartoon face, which was presented on a computer screen. Results showed that androstadienone modulated the participant´s task performance by accelerating the reaction speed compared to the control compound. Faster reactions were observed particularly when reacting to angry faces but not when reacting to happy faces. This might be explained by the finding that human body odors, the source of androstadienone, were found to activate the human fear system, i.e. modulating fear-related attentional processes. Therefore, the quicker reaction towards angry faces with exposure to androstadienone could be due to an enhanced allocation of attentional resources towards fear-related cues like angry faces. Results also showed that androstadienone enhanced men´s approach tendency towards faces independent of emotional expressions. This observation might be explained by androstadienone´s former shown ability to improve attractiveness ratings of other persons. In this regard, the endogenous odor might enhance evaluations of faces in men and, thus, might improve their willingness to approach social stimuli. In contrast to men, women already showed in the control condition higher approach tendency towards faces. Therefore, androstadienone might rather maintain than enhance the approach score in women. In the second study event-related brain potentials (ERPs) triggered by social and non-social visual stimuli were investigated by means of electroencephalography. In a double-blind between-subjects design 51 women participated. Twenty-eight women inhaled androstadienone, whereas 23 women inhaled a control solution. Four different picture categories, i.e. real faces, pictures with couples, pictures with social and non-social scenes, each including three different valence categories, i.e. positive, negative and neutral, should clarify the stimulus type or context androstadienone is acting on. The androstadienone compared to the control odor did not influence brain responses significantly. Explorative analyses, however, suggested that androstadienone influences the processing of faces. While in the control group angry faces elicited larger P300 amplitudes than happy faces, the androstadienone group showed similar P300 amplitudes concerning all emotional expressions. This observation tentatively indicates that the endogenous odor might indeed affect the neuronal responses to emotional facial stimuli, especially late components reflecting evaluative processes. However, this observation has to be verified and further investigated, in particular whether androstadienone caused reduced responses to angry faces or enhanced responses to happy faces. The third study investigated androstadienone effects on face processing especially in men. ERPs elicited by happy, angry and neutral cartoon faces, which were presented on a computer screen, were measured while 16 men, not knowing the applicated odor, inhaled either androstadienone or a control solution. Exposure to androstadienone significantly increased later neuronal responses, the P300 amplitude. This belated component of the ERP reflects attention allocation and evaluative processes towards important stimuli. Therefore, androstadienone might facilitate central nervous face processing by enhancing attention towards these stimuli. In sum, the current results corroborate the notion of androstadienone as an active social chemosignal. In minute amounts and not detectable as an odor it influenced cortical and motoric reactions. Therefore, it might be concluded that androstadienone indeed affects cognitive functions like attentional processes and in turn affects our behavior. The current results further support the notion that androstadienone acts like a human modulator pheromone, namely modulating ongoing behavior or a psychological reaction to a particular context, changing stimulus sensitivity, salience and sensory-motor integration. However, these conclusions remain tentative until further replication takes place, best in ecologically valid environments. Furthermore, one has to keep in mind that the current studies could not replicate several previous findings and could not verify some hypotheses assuming communicative effects of androstadienone. Thus, the main assumption of this thesis that androstadienone is an active chemosignal is still challenged. Also, whether the term “pheromone” is indeed suitable to label androstadienone remains open.
N2  - Pheromone sind als Kommunikationssubstanzen im Tierreich unabkömmlich. Ob jedoch menschliche Pheromone tatsächlich existieren, wird noch immer diskutiert. Während der letzten Jahre wurden mehrere Substanzen als putative menschliche Pheromone bezeichnet. Unter diesen wurde v.a. 4,16–androstadien-3-on (Androstadienon), eine Komponente des männlichen und weiblichen Schweißes, intensiv untersucht. Bisherige Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass Androstadienon im Gegensatz zu herkömmlichen Duftstoffen die Verarbeitung visueller Stimuli, v.a. von Gesichtern und von affektiven Stimuli, vermutlich über eine Modulation der Aktivität des Gyrus fusiformis und der Amygdala beeinflussen kann. Außerdem könnten Aufmerksamkeitsprozesse durch Androstadienon beeinflusst sein, was durch explizite und implizite Verhaltensdaten angedeutet wird. Diese Doktorarbeit untersuchte in drei verschiedenen Studien die Effekte von Androstadienon auf kortikale Reaktionen und Verhalten bei Männern und Frauen, während diese mit visuellen, insbesondere emotionalen Stimuli konfrontiert wurden. Die Haupthypothesen waren, dass Androstadienon die Wahrnehmung visueller Stimuli und menschliches Verhalten gegenüber diesen beeinflussen könnte. Die erste Studie untersuchte Androstadienoneffekte auf aufmerksamkeitsabhängige, motorische Reaktionen sowie auf Verhaltenstendenzen. Motorisches Annäherungs- und Vermeidungsverhalten als Reaktion auf freudige und ärgerliche Gesichter wurden bei 30 Frauen und 32 Männern untersucht. Während diese entweder Androstadienon oder einen Kontrollduft inhalierten, ohne zu wissen welchen, mussten sie so schnell wie möglich einen Joystick jeweils wegdrücken oder zu sich heranziehen, sobald entweder ein freudiges oder ärgerliches Gesicht auf einem Computerbildschirm erschien. Im Vergleich zum Kontrollduft beschleunigte Androstadienon die Reaktionsgeschwindigkeit spezifisch auf ärgerliche Gesichter unabhängig von der Bewegungsrichtung. Dies könnte damit zusammenhängen, dass menschlicher Körpergeruch, die Quelle von Androstadienon, das Angstsystem im menschlichen Gehirn aktiviert. Die schnellere Reaktion auf ärgerliche Gesichter durch den endogenen Geruch könnte dementsprechend auf eine erhöhte Bereitstellung von Aufmerksamkeitsressourcen für angstverwandte Stimuli, wie ärgerliche Gesichter, zurückzuführen sein. Zusätzlich zeigten die Ergebnisse, dass Androstadienon unabhängig vom Emotionsausdruck die Annäherungstendenz bei Männern zu den Gesichtern erhöht. Diese Beobachtung könnte durch die in einer früheren Studie gezeigte Eigenschaft von Androstadienon, die Attraktivitätsbewertungen anderer Personen zu erhöhen, erklärt werden. Demnach könnte der endogene Duftstoff bei Männern die Bewertung von Gesichtern verbessern und folglich die Bereitschaft, sich sozialen Stimuli anzunähern, erhöhen. Im Gegensatz zu Männern zeigten Frauen schon in der Kontrollbedingung eine stärkere Annäherungstendenz zu Gesichtern. Folglich könnte Androstadienon diese verstärkte Tendenz bei Frauen eher aufrechterhalten als verstärken. In der zweiten Studie wurden kortikale Reaktionen, d.h. ereigniskorrelierte Gehirnpotentiale (EKPs), auf soziale und nicht-soziale visuelle Bilder bei 28 Frauen, die Androstadienon rochen, und bei 23 Frauen die einem Kontrollduft ausgesetzt waren, mit Elektroenzephalographie untersucht. Allen Teilnehmerinnen war der Inhalt des applizierten Duftstoffes nicht bewusst. Vier verschiedene Bildkategorien, d.h. echte Gesichter, Bilder mit Paaren, Bilder mit Gruppen von Menschen und Bilder ohne Personen, mit jeweils positiver, negativer und neutraler Valenz wurden verwendet, um den Wirkkontext von Androstadienon zu klären. Androstadienon beeinflusste die Hirnreaktionen auf diese Stimuli nicht signifikant. Explorative Analysen deuteten aber an, dass Androstadienon die späte EKP Komponente, P300, beeinflussen kann. Während in der Kontrollgruppe ärgerliche Gesichter größere P300 Amplituden auslösten als freudige Gesichter, erzeugten in der Androstadienongruppe alle emotionalen Ausdrücke ähnliche P300 Amplituden. Dies könnte andeuten, dass Androstadienon attentive oder evaluative Prozesse bei der Gesichtsverarbeitung beeinflusst, was aber durch weitere Studien bestätigt und präzisiert werden muss. Die dritte Studie untersuchte Androstadienoneffekte auf zentralnervöse Prozesse der Gesichtsverarbeitung von Männern. EKPs auf freudige, ärgerliche und neutrale Cartoongesichter wurden aufgezeichnet, während 16 Männer entweder Androstadienon oder den Kontrollduft inhalierten, ohne jeweils zu wissen welchen. Androstadienon verstärkte eine späte neuronale Reaktion, die P300 Komponente, auf alle Gesichter signifikant. Diese Komponente des ereigniskorrelierten Potenzials spiegelt die Bereitstellung von Aufmerksamkeit auf wichtige Stimuli wider. Androstadienon könnte folglich die zentralnervöse Verarbeitung von Gesichtern erleichtern, indem es Aufmerksamkeit auf diese Stimuli lenkt. Zusammenfassend stützen die genannten Ergebnisse die Annahme, dass Androstadienon ein aktives soziales Chemosignal ist. In winzigen, bewusst nicht wahrnehmbaren Mengen beeinflusste es kortikale und motorische Reaktionen. Demzufolge scheint Androstadienon tatsächlich auf kognitive Funktionen wie Aufmerksamkeit zu wirken und deshalb unser Verhalten beeinflussen zu können. Die aktuellen Ergebnisse unterstützen auch die Annahme, dass Androstadienon ein menschliches Modulatorpheromon ist, das in einem speziellen Kontext unser Verhalten und eine psychologische Reaktion moduliert und Stimulussensitivität und die Sensor-Motor-Integration ändert. Dennoch müssen diese Interpretationen als vorläufig betrachtet werden bis die dargestellten Ergebnisse auch unter ökologisch validen Bedingungen repliziert werden konnten. Außerdem muss berücksichtigt werden, dass in dieser Doktorarbeit einige frühere Ergebnisse und einige Hypothesen bezüglich kommunikativer Effekte von Androstadienone nicht bestätigt werden konnten. Deshalb kann die Annahme, dass Androstadienon ein aktives Chemosignal ist, immer noch in Frage gestellt werden. Auch ob Androstadienon tatsächlich als menschliches Pheromon bezeichnet werden sollte bleibt offen.
KW  - Pheromon
KW  - Aufmerksamkeit
KW  - Mensch
KW  - Androstadienon
KW  - ereigniskorreliertes Potential
KW  - Antwortverhalten
KW  - Geruchssinn
KW  - androstadienone
KW  - humans
KW  - olfaction
KW  - pheromone
KW  - behavior
KW  - attention
Y1  - 2011
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-72292
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Seibt, Beate
A1  - Mühlberger, Andreas
A1  - Likowski, Katja U.
A1  - Weyers, Peter
T1  - Facial mimicry in its social setting
JF  - Frontiers in Psychology
N2  - In interpersonal encounters, individuals often exhibit changes in their own facial expressions in response to emotional expressions of another person. Such changes are often called facial mimicry. While this tendency first appeared to be an automatic tendency of the perceiver to show the same emotional expression as the sender, evidence is now accumulating that situation, person, and relationship jointly determine whether and for which emotions such congruent facial behavior is shown. We review the evidence regarding the moderating influence of such factors on facial mimicry with a focus on understanding the meaning of facial responses to emotional expressions in a particular constellation. From this, we derive recommendations for a research agenda with a stronger focus on the most common forms of encounters, actual interactions with known others, and on assessing potential mediators of facial mimicry. We conclude that facial mimicry is modulated by many factors: attention deployment and sensitivity, detection of valence, emotional feelings, and social motivations. We posit that these are the more proximal causes of changes in facial mimicry due to changes in its social setting.
KW  - cultural differences
KW  - political leaders
KW  - mimicry
KW  - cooperation
KW  - self-focused attention
KW  - emotional empathy
KW  - nonconscious mimicry
KW  - expressive displays
KW  - gender differences
KW  - speech anxiety
KW  - behavior
KW  - responses
KW  - facial expression
KW  - EMG
KW  - competition
KW  - mood
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-151415
VL  - 6
IS  - 1122
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Appel, Mirjam
A1  - Scholz, Claus-Jürgen
A1  - Müller, Tobias
A1  - Dittrich, Marcus
A1  - König, Christian
A1  - Bockstaller, Marie
A1  - Oguz, Tuba
A1  - Khalili, Afshin
A1  - Antwi-Adjei, Emmanuel
A1  - Schauer, Tamas
A1  - Margulies, Carla
A1  - Tanimoto, Hiromu
A1  - Yarali, Ayse
T1  - Genome-Wide Association Analyses Point to Candidate Genes for Electric Shock Avoidance in Drosophila melanogaster
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Electric shock is a common stimulus for nociception-research and the most widely used reinforcement in aversive associative learning experiments. Yet, nothing is known about the mechanisms it recruits at the periphery. To help fill this gap, we undertook a genome-wide association analysis using 38 inbred Drosophila melanogaster strains, which avoided shock to varying extents. We identified 514 genes whose expression levels and/or sequences covaried with shock avoidance scores. We independently scrutinized 14 of these genes using mutants, validating the effect of 7 of them on shock avoidance. This emphasizes the value of our candidate gene list as a guide for follow-up research. In addition, by integrating our association results with external protein-protein interaction data we obtained a shock avoidance- associated network of 38 genes. Both this network and the original candidate list contained a substantial number of genes that affect mechanosensory bristles, which are hairlike organs distributed across the fly's body. These results may point to a potential role for mechanosensory bristles in shock sensation. Thus, we not only provide a first list of candidate genes for shock avoidance, but also point to an interesting new hypothesis on nociceptive mechanisms.
KW  - functional analysis
KW  - disruption project
KW  - natural variation
KW  - complex traits
KW  - networks
KW  - behavior
KW  - flies
KW  - temperature
KW  - genetics
KW  - painful
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-152006
VL  - 10
IS  - 5
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gutknecht, Lise
A1  - Araragi, Naozumi
A1  - Merker, Sören
A1  - Waider, Jonas
A1  - Sommerlandt, Frank M. J.
A1  - Mlinar, Boris
A1  - Baccini, Gilda
A1  - Mayer, Ute
A1  - Proft, Florian
A1  - Hamon, Michel
A1  - Schmitt, Angelika G.
A1  - Corradetti, Renato
A1  - Lanfumey, Laurence
A1  - Lesch, Klaus-Peter
T1  - Impacts of Brain Serotonin Deficiency following Tph2 Inactivation on Development and Raphe Neuron Serotonergic Specification
JF  - PLoS One
N2  - Brain serotonin (5-HT) is implicated in a wide range of functions from basic physiological mechanisms to complex behaviors, including neuropsychiatric conditions, as well as in developmental processes. Increasing evidence links 5-HT signaling alterations during development to emotional dysregulation and psychopathology in adult age. To further analyze the importance of brain 5-HT in somatic and brain development and function, and more specifically differentiation and specification of the serotonergic system itself, we generated a mouse model with brain-specific 5-HT deficiency resulting from a genetically driven constitutive inactivation of neuronal tryptophan hydroxylase-2 (Tph2). Tph2 inactivation (Tph2-/-) resulted in brain 5-HT deficiency leading to growth retardation and persistent leanness, whereas a sex- and age-dependent increase in body weight was observed in Tph2+/- mice. The conserved expression pattern of the 5-HT neuron-specific markers (except Tph2 and 5-HT) demonstrates that brain 5-HT synthesis is not a prerequisite for the proliferation, differentiation and survival of raphe neurons subjected to the developmental program of serotonergic specification. Furthermore, although these neurons are unable to synthesize 5-HT from the precursor tryptophan, they still display electrophysiological properties characteristic of 5-HT neurons. Moreover, 5-HT deficiency induces an up-regulation of 5-HT\(_{1A}\) and 5-HT\(_{1B}\) receptors across brain regions as well as a reduction of norepinephrine concentrations accompanied by a reduced number of noradrenergic neurons. Together, our results characterize developmental, neurochemical, neurobiological and electrophysiological consequences of brain-specific 5-HT deficiency, reveal a dual dose-dependent role of 5-HT in body weight regulation and show that differentiation of serotonergic neuron phenotype is independent from endogenous 5-HT synthesis.
KW  - lacking
KW  - knock-out mice
KW  - energy expenditure
KW  - locomotor activity
KW  - 5-HT transporter
KW  - anxiety like
KW  - receptors
KW  - behavior
KW  - tryptophan
KW  - nucleus
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-133728
VL  - 7
IS  - 8
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schilcher, Felix
A1  - Hilsmann, Lioba
A1  - Rauscher, Lisa
A1  - Değirmenci, Laura
A1  - Krischke, Markus
A1  - Krischke, Beate
A1  - Ankenbrand, Markus
A1  - Rutschmann, Benjamin
A1  - Mueller, Martin J.
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Scheiner, Ricarda
T1  - In vitro rearing changes social task performance and physiology in honeybees
JF  - Insects
N2  - In vitro rearing of honeybee larvae is an established method that enables exact control and monitoring of developmental factors and allows controlled application of pesticides or pathogens. However, only a few studies have investigated how the rearing method itself affects the behavior of the resulting adult honeybees. We raised honeybees in vitro according to a standardized protocol: marking the emerging honeybees individually and inserting them into established colonies. Subsequently, we investigated the behavioral performance of nurse bees and foragers and quantified the physiological factors underlying the social organization. Adult honeybees raised in vitro differed from naturally reared honeybees in their probability of performing social tasks. Further, in vitro-reared bees foraged for a shorter duration in their life and performed fewer foraging trips. Nursing behavior appeared to be unaffected by rearing condition. Weight was also unaffected by rearing condition. Interestingly, juvenile hormone titers, which normally increase strongly around the time when a honeybee becomes a forager, were significantly lower in three- and four-week-old in vitro bees. The effects of the rearing environment on individual sucrose responsiveness and lipid levels were rather minor. These data suggest that larval rearing conditions can affect the task performance and physiology of adult bees despite equal weight, pointing to an important role of the colony environment for these factors. Our observations of behavior and metabolic pathways offer important novel insight into how the rearing environment affects adult honeybees.
KW  - honeybee
KW  - artificial rearing
KW  - behavior
KW  - in vitro
KW  - juvenile hormone
KW  - triglycerides
KW  - PER
KW  - foraging
KW  - nursing
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252305
SN  - 2075-4450
VL  - 13
IS  - 1
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Riepl, Korbinian
A1  - Mussel, Patrick
A1  - Osinsky, Roman
A1  - Hewig, Johannes
T1  - Influences of State and Trait Affect on Behavior, Feedback-Related Negativity, and P3b in the Ultimatum Game
JF  - PLoS One
N2  - The present study investigates how different emotions can alter social bargaining behavior. An important paradigm to study social bargaining is the Ultimatum Game. There, a proposer gets a pot of money and has to offer part of it to a responder. If the responder accepts, both players get the money as proposed by the proposer. If he rejects, none of the players gets anything. Rational choice models would predict that responders accept all offers above 0. However, evidence shows that responders typically reject a large proportion of all unfair offers. We analyzed participants’ behavior when they played the Ultimatum Game as responders and simultaneously collected electroencephalogram data in order to quantify the feedback-related negativity and P3b components. We induced state affect (momentarily emotions unrelated to the task) via short movie clips and measured trait affect (longer-lasting emotional dispositions) via questionnaires. State happiness led to increased acceptance rates of very unfair offers. Regarding neurophysiology, we found that unfair offers elicited larger feedback-related negativity amplitudes than fair offers. Additionally, an interaction of state and trait affect occurred: high trait negative affect (subsuming a variety of aversive mood states) led to increased feedback-related negativity amplitudes when participants were in an angry mood, but not if they currently experienced fear or happiness. We discuss that increased rumination might be responsible for this result, which might not occur, however, when people experience happiness or fear. Apart from that, we found that fair offers elicited larger P3b components than unfair offers, which might reflect increased pleasure in response to fair offers. Moreover, high trait negative affect was associated with decreased P3b amplitudes, potentially reflecting decreased motivation to engage in activities. We discuss implications of our results in the light of theories and research on depression and anxiety.
KW  - emotions
KW  - ultimatum game
KW  - fear
KW  - happiness
KW  - behavior
KW  - decision making
KW  - electroencephalography
KW  - event-related potentials
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-147386
VL  - 7
IS  - 11
ER  -