# behav: ADHD may have been a feature of nomadic exploration among hunter-gatherer societies

<< All mobile organisms forage for resources, choosing how and when to search for new opportunities by comparing current returns with the average for the environment. In humans, nomadic lifestyles favouring exploration have been associated with genetic mutations implicated in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), inviting the hypothesis that this condition may impact foraging decisions in the general population. >>️

David L. Barack, Vera U. Ludwig, et al. 

Attention deficits linked with proclivity to explore while foraging. Proc Royal Society B.  doi: 10.1098/ rspb.2022.2584. Feb 21, 2024. 

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2584     

<< Is it a legacy of the hunter-gatherer world? >> Arjun Ramakrishnan

Chen Ly. ADHD may have evolved to help foragers know when to cut their losses. newscientist.com Feb 21,2024.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2418114-adhd-may-have-evolved-to-help-foragers-know-when-to-cut-their-losses

Also: nomads, bushmen, behav, uncertainty, curiosity, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: adhd, nomads, hunter-gatherers, behavior, behaviour

# behav: mechanics of fire ant rafts as an active self-healing membrane

<< The unique ability of fire ants to form a raft to survive flooding rain has enchanted biologists as well as researchers in other disciplines. (..) a three-dimensional aggregation of fire ants exhibits viscoelasticity with respect to external compression and shearing among numerous unusual mechanical properties. >>️

AA << study the ant raft in its natural form, i.e., composing no more than two layers. This allowed to focus on the cracks that are unique to membranes and see how their patterns are influenced by the fact that these ants are mobile and can self-repair the damage to keep their raft from disintegration. >>️

They << show that vertical and horizontal shaking can also prompt fire ants to aggregate.  (..)  the pull force expedites the alignment of fire ants, in analogy to the effect of an electric field on liquid crystal polymers. >>️

<< One major finding is that the raft can exhibit zero Poisson's ratio without resorting to specific geometry structures. This is enabled by the active recruitment of ants from the top layer to the bottom layer to keep the raft from disintegrating. >>️

️

Chung-Hao Chen, Ting-Heng Hsieh, et al. Formation and mechanics of fire ant rafts as an active self-healing membrane. Phys. Rev. E 109, 014607. Jan 9, 2024. 

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.109.014607

David Ehrenstein. Material Properties of Fire-Ant Rafts. Physics 17, s5. Jan 9. 2024. 

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/s5

Also:  raft   https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=raft  

zattera (quasi-stochastic poetry) https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2005/04/1864-onda-di-liberazione.html  

randa (quasi-stochastic poetry) https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=randa

Also: behav, behavior, in  https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords behavior, behaviour, ant, raft, self-healing

# behav: the self-care hypothesis of the puteketeke bird (great crested grebe, Podiceps cristatus)

<< The Puteketeke bird has been elected as New Zealand's Bird of the Century after John Oliver promoted the bird not just on his show, but around the world. >>

<< It also exhibits some unusual antics, like eating feathers to help it vomit up parasites,  >> AILSA CHANG

️

<< They have a mating dance where they both grab a clump of wet grass and chest bump each other... >> JOHN OLIVER

Kat Lonsdorf, Christopher Intagliata. The Puteketeke bird has been elected as New Zealand's Bird of the Century. npr.org Nov 15, 2023. 

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/15/1213287236/the-puteketeke-bird-has-been-elected-as-new-zealands-bird-of-the-century

L’uccello del secolo della Nuova Zelanda l’ha deciso John Oliver. ilpost.it. Nov 15, 2023. 

https://www.ilpost.it/2023/11/15/john-oliver-uccello-secolo-nuova-zelanda/

the bird: https://youtu.be/98ceB5SPRXI

John Oliver, an interview: https://youtu.be/uVE1hBzHn3s

many thanks to Tammi ( https://www.inkgmr.net/tammi ) for this news. 

Also: Self-perception of health and survival. A 10-year follow-up among Italians aged over sixty. INRCA, Technical Report, Genova, 7 March 1995: 1-19. Minerva Med 1997 Jan-Feb 88:1-2 15-23. [abst] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9093288/

Also: 'behav', 'perception', in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: behaviour, self-care, perceptions

# behav: use of social information in flight (among ‘griffon’ vultures Gyps fulvus and G. rueppellii)

 <<Animals rely on a balance of personal and social information to decide when and where to move next in order to access a desired resource, such as food. The benefits from cueing on conspecifics to reduce uncertainty about resources availability can be rapidly overcome by the risks of within-group competition, often exacerbated toward low-ranked individuals. Being obligate soarers, relying on thermal updrafts to search for carcasses around which competition can be fierce, vultures represent ideal models to investigate the balance between personal and social information during foraging movements. Linking dominance hierarchy, social affinities and meteorological conditions to movement decisions of eight captive vultures, Gyps spp., released for free flights in natural-like soaring conditions,  (AA) found that they relied on social information (i.e. other vultures using/having used the thermals) to find the next thermal updraft, especially in unfavourable flight conditions. Low-ranked individuals were more likely to disregard social cues when deciding where to go next, possibly to minimise the competitive risk of social aggregation. These results exemplify the architecture of decision-making during flight in social birds. It suggests that the environmental context, the context of risk and the social system as a whole calibrate the balance between personal and social information use. >> 

Sassi Yohan, Nouzieres Basile, Scacco Martina, et al. The use of social information in vulture flight decisions. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/ 2023.07.26.550671. Jul 28, 2023.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.26.550671v1

Also: behav, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

# behav: even the first asynchronous decisions might tend to be correct and exhibit information cascades.

<< It is usually assumed that information cascades are most likely to occur when an early but incorrect opinion spreads through the group. Here (AA) analyse models of confidence-sharing in groups and reveal the opposite result: simple but plausible models of naïve Bayesian decision-making exhibit information cascades when group decisions are synchronous; however, when group decisions are asynchronous, the early decisions reached by Bayesian decision makers tend to be correct, and dominate the group consensus dynamics. Thus early decisions actually rescue the group from making errors, rather than contribute to it. (AA) explore the likely realism of our assumed decision-making rule with reference to the evolution of mechanisms for aggregating social information, and known psychological and neuroscientific mechanisms. >>️

Andreagiovanni Reina, Thomas Bose, et al.  Asynchrony rescues statistically-optimal group decisions from information cascades through emergent leaders.  bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/ 2022.04.05.487127. Feb16, 2023.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.05.487127v3

Also

'asynchronous' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=asynchronous

'game' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=game

'behav' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=behav

Keywords: behavior, behaviour, game, decision-making, synchronous- asynchronous group decisions, social interactions, information cascade, life, jazz

# gst: apropos of swarms: local couplings, chirality, lattices of vortices, beating clusters, interacting phase waves among swarmalators.

AA << study the emergent behaviors of a population of swarming coupled oscillators, dubbed 'swarmalators'. (..)  Here (they) expand this work by adding more realistic features: local coupling, non-identical natural frequencies, and chirality. This more realistic model generates a variety of new behaviors including lattices of vortices, beating clusters, and interacting phase waves. Similar behaviors are found across natural and artificial micro-scale collective systems, including social slime mold, spermatozoa vortex arrays, and Quincke rollers. >>

Steven Ceron, Kevin O'Keeffe, Kirstin Petersen. Diverse Behaviors in Non-Uniform Chiral and Non-Chiral Swarmalators. arXiv: 2211.06439v1 [nlin.AO]. Nov 11, 2022.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.06439

Also

keyword 'swarm' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=swarm

keyword 'chiral' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=chiral

keyword 'vortex' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=vortex

keyword 'vortice' in Notes

(quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=vortice

Keywords: gst, behav, behavior, behaviour, swarm, swarmalators, chirality, chiral swarmalators, non-chiral swarmalators, vortex, vortex array, vortices, vorticity, slime mold.

# gst: apropos of transitions, the transition from sticking to slipping.

<< From hydrogels and plastics to liquid crystals, soft solids cover a wide array of synthetic and biological materials that play key enabling roles in advanced technologies >>️

<< Attempts to study the interactions between soft solids and liquids have largely focused on the wetting of soft solids and its resulting deformation at equilibrium or in a quasi-static state. Here, (AA) consider the frequently encountered case of unsteady wetting of a liquid on a soft solid and show that transient deformation of the solid is necessary to understand unsteady wetting behaviours. >>️

AA << find that the initial spreading of the liquid occurs uninterrupted in the absence of solid deformation. This is followed by intermittent spreading, in which transient deformation of the solid at the three-phase contact line (CL) causes the CL motion to alternate alternation between CL sticking and slipping. (They) identify the spreading rate of liquids and the viscoelastic reacting rate of soft solids as the two competing factors in dictating intermittent spreading. (They)  formulate and validate experimentally the conditions required for the contact line to transition from sticking to slipping. By considering the growing deformation of soft solids as dynamic surface heterogeneities, (AA) proposed conditions for stick-slip transition in unsteady wetting on soft solids broaden the classical theory on wetting hysteresis on rigid solids. >>️

Surjyasish Mitra, Quoc Vo, Marcus Lin, Tuan Tran. Unsteady wetting of soft solids. arXiv:2211.07043v1 [cond-mat.soft]. Nov 13, 2022.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.07043

Also

keyword 'drop' | 'droplet' | 'droploids' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=drop

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=droplet

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=droploids

keyword 'goccia' in Notes 

(quasi-stochastic poetry) 

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=goccia

Keywords: gst, behav, behaviour, transition, soft solids, drop, droplet, sticking, slipping.

# life: Chimps distribute their time to groom other individuals in the same manner as humans structure their relationships.

AA << show that the time chimpanzees devote to grooming other individuals is well described by the same model used for human relationships, supporting the existence of similar social signatures for both humans and chimpanzees. Furthermore, the relationship structure depends on group size as predicted by the model, the proportion of high intensity connections being larger for smaller groups. >>

Diego Escribano, Victoria Doldan-Martelli, et al. Chimpanzees organize their social relationships like humans. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/ 2022.03.16.484664. March 17, 2022. 

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.16.484664v1

Also

keywords 'chimp' | 'chimps' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=chimp

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=chimps

keyword 'chimps' | 'sileno' in Notes (quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=chimps

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=sileno

keywords 'behav' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=behav

keywords: life, chimps, behav, behavior, behaviour, social relationships

# brain: a broad range of decision-making abilities, the 'decision acuity'

<< A common factor called "decision acuity" underpins diverse decision-making abilities in adolescents and young adults, (..) is stable over time, distinct from IQ, and reduced in individuals with low general social functioning. >>️

<< decision acuity predicted patterns of correlated activity among opercular cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and somatosensory and motor areas -- brain regions previously linked to decision-making.  >>️

Independent of IQ, 'decision acuity' predicts broad range of decision-making abilities. Cell Press. May 20, 2021.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210520133924.htm

<< Decision acuity was decreased in those with aberrant thinking and low general social functioning. Crucially, decision acuity and IQ had dissociable brain signatures, in terms of their associated neural networks of resting-state functional connectivity. >>

Michael Moutoussis, Benjamín Garzón, et al. Decision-making ability,  psychopathology, and brain connectivity. Neuron. doi: 10.1016/ j.neuron.2021.04.019. May 20, 2021.

️

https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(21)00285-3

Also

keyword 'decision-making' in PubMed:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=decision-making

# behav: apropos of the uncertainty about the 'Zona Incerta', a thresholding mechanism involved in curiosity and novelty-seeking behavior

<< Motivational drives are internal states that can be different even in similar interactions with external stimuli. Curiosity as the motivational drive for novelty-seeking and investigating the surrounding environment is for survival as essential and intrinsic as hunger. Curiosity, hunger, and appetitive aggression drive three different goal-directed behaviors—novelty seeking, food eating, and hunting >>️

<< Optogenetic activation of inhibitory neurons in medial ZI (ZIm) [medial Zona Incerta in mouse, freedom to choose what it wants], ZImGAD2 neurons, showed a dramatic increase in positive arousal level, depth of investigation, and duration of interaction with conspecifics and novel objects compared with familiar objects, crickets, and food. Optogenetic or chemogenetic deactivation of these neurons decreased depth and duration of investigation. Moreover, [AA] found that ZImGAD2 neurons are more active during deep investigation as compared with during shallow investigation. >>

<< [They] found that activation of prelimbic cortex (PL) axons into ZIm increases arousal level, and chemogenetic deactivation of these axons decreases the duration and depth of investigation. >>

<< Optogenetic activation of ZImGAD2 axons into lateral periaqueductal gray (lPAG) increases the arousal level, whereas chemogenetic deactivation of these axons decreases duration and depth of investigation. Calcium fiber photometry of these axons showed high activity during deep investigation and no significant activity during shallow investigation, suggesting a thresholding mechanism. >>️

<< Last, [AA] found a new subpopulation of inhibitory neurons in ZIm expressing tachykinin 1 (TAC1) that monosynaptically receive PL inputs and project to lPAG. Optogenetic activation and deactivation of these neurons, respectively, increased and decreased depth and duration of investigation. >>️️

Ahmadlou, Janou H. W. Houba, et al. A cell type–specific cortico-subcortical brain circuit for investigatory and novelty-seeking behavior. Science . Vol. 372, Issue 6543, eabe9681. doi: 10.1126/ science.abe9681. May 14, 2021. 

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6543/eabe9681   

Brain mechanism of curiosity unraveled. Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience - KNAW.  May 13, 2021. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210513142430.htm

# gst: like a bowl of worms, but with two behavioral regimes

AA << have observed strand motion in a polymer melt that contradicts the idea of independent motion. >>️

<< According to the results of new neutron scattering experiments, polymer molecules in plastics move in ways that aren’t captured by commonly used models. >>

<< Melt a plastic, and its constituent molecules, known as polymers, wiggle around. Experts typically describe polymer motion using the so-called tube model, which imagines plastics as a tangle of polymer strands—think a bowlful of worms. The model assumes that each strand moves independently within a virtual tube.  >>️

<< Monitoring the center of mass motion of the short strands, they observed two behavior regimes. For short translational distances, the motion of the short strands slowed as they grew apart. For longer distances, when the center of mass of the strands reached a size on the order of the diameter of the virtual tube, the speed at which the short strands moved stopped slowing down and instead matched that of diffusion. (..) the motions of short strands were tied to those of neighboring strands at short distances, differing from a standard assumption of the tube model. This cooperative motion may come from interactions between the segments, beyond simple local friction. >>️️

Sophia Chen. The Weird Wiggle of Polymers. Physics 14, s56. May 4, 2021.

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v14/s56    

Zamponi M., Kruteva M., et al. Cooperative Chain Dynamics of Tracer Chains in Highly Entangled Polyethylene Melts. Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 187801. May 4,  2021.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.187801