Aya Senoo

Familiarity perception call elicited under restricted sensory cues in peer-social interactions of the domestic chick.

Social cognitive mechanisms are central to understanding developmental abnormalities, such as autistic spectrum disorder. Peer relations besides parent-infant or pair-bonding interactions are pivotal social relationships that are especially well developed in humans. Cognition of familiarity forms the basis of peer socialization. Domestic chick (Gallus gallus) studies have contributed to our understanding of the developmental process in sensory-motor cognition but many processes remain unknown. In this report, we used chicks, as they are precocial birds, and we could therefore focus on peer interaction without having to consider parenting. The subject chick behavior towards familiar and unfamiliar reference peers was video-recorded, where the subject and the reference were separated by either an opaque or transparent wall. Spectrogram and behavior correlation analyses based on principal component analysis, revealed that chicks elicited an intermediate contact call and a morphologically different distress call, more frequently towards familiar versus unfamiliar chicks in acoustic only conditions. When both visual and acoustic cues were present, subject chicks exhibited approaching and floor pecking behavior, while eliciting joyful (pleasant) calls, irrespective of whether reference peers were familiar or unfamiliar. Our result showed that chicks recognized familiarity using acoustic cues and expressed cognition through modified distress calls. These finding suggests that peer affiliation may be established by acoustic recognition, independent of visual face recognition, and that eventually, both forms of recognition are integrated, with modulation of acoustic recognition.

Reading marmoset behavior 'semantics' under particular social context by multi-parameters correlation analysis.

Social interactions are a fundamental aspect of human and animal behavior. Although neuroimaging and other non-invasive methods have progressed recently, the neurobiology of social behavior requires the use of animal models. Here, we introduced a multi-behavior parameter integration method and applied it to female-male interaction of adult common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). Based on the correlated parameters and meeting context, we found that the behavioral endpoints clustered in four distinct categories, which could be interpreted as active, freeze, alert, and affinity emotional states. The relevance of this interpretation was supported as the female behavior category change positively correlated with serum cortisol and progesterone levels after social interaction. Thus, our multi-behavior parameter integration method may be useful to evaluate social emotionality in animal models, as well as to quantify social behavior in human psychiatric disorders.

Peer attachment formation by systemic redox regulation with social training after a sensitive period

Attachment formation is the most pivotal factor for humans and animals in the growth and development of social relationships. However, the developmental processes of attachment formation mediated by sensory-motor, emotional, and cognitive integration remain obscure. Here we developed an animal model to understand the types of social interactions that lead to peer-social attachment formation. We found that the social interaction in a sensitive period was essential to stabilise or overwrite the initially imprinted peer affiliation state and that synchronised behaviour with others based on common motivations could be a driver of peer social attachment formation. Furthermore, feeding experience with supplementation of ubiquinol conferred peer social attachment formation even after the sensitive period. Surprisingly, the experience of feeding beyond the cage window was also effective to reduce the required amount ubiquinol, suggesting that peri-personal space modulation may affect socio-emotional cognition and there by lead to attachment formation.

Socio-emotional development evaluated by Behaviour Output analysis for Quantitative Emotional State Translation (BOUQUET): Towards early diagnosis of individuals with developmental disorders

For citation purposes: Koshiba M, Nakamura S, Mimura K, Senoo A, Karino G, Amemiya S, et al. Socio-emotional development evaluated by Behaviour Output analysis for Quantitative Emotional State Translation (BOUQUET): towards early diagnosis of individuals with developmental disorders. OA Autism 2013 Jul 21;1(2):18. Co m pe tin g in te re st s: n on e de cl ar ed . C on fli ct o f i nt er es ts : n on e de cl ar ed .

Multivariate Correlation Analysis Suggested High Ubiquinol and Low Ubiquinone in Plasma Promoted PrimateâÂÂs Social Motivation and IR Detected Lower Body Temperature

Mental problems caused by various kinds of stress induce neurotoxic damage through biological mechanisms like oxidation or metabolic unbalancing. We evaluated the dietary supplementation of antioxidant and nutrition, ubiquinol with milk in normal isolated adult common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) as a preliminary preclinical study. The primates were fed with milk with or without ubiquinol every day for three months and after a two-month-interval, the treatment conditions were alternated. Psycho-physiological state was evaluated by video-recording of social behavior, body temperature detection by a simple IR thermal camera and a blood glucose chip-sensor. Furthermore, social behavior data were information-processed by technology to integrate multiple factors, ‘Behavior output analysis for quantification of emotional state translation’ abbreviated as BOUQUET, which visualized a statistical partial space where the status of high ubiquinol and low ubiquinone in plasma strongly correlated with high frequency of social approaching behavior and lower body temperatures in a social meeting context. This analysis also suggested that high frequency of face direction to a peer correlated with the high ubiquinol-low ubiquinone and high variation of body temperature. Blood glucose seemed weakly relevant to alert behavior in this multiple correlation. These results imply that unbiquinol supplementation promotes social motivation. Finally, the result that the BOUQUET and the sensor systems revealed the implicit psycho-physiological information suggests its applicability in various toxico-psychopathological studies as quantitative manner.

A cross-species socio-emotional behaviour development revealed by a multivariate analysis

Recent progress in affective neuroscience and social neurobiology has been propelled by neuro-imaging technology and epigenetic approach in neurobiology of animal behaviour. However, quantitative measurements of socio-emotional development remains lacking, though sensory-motor development has been extensively studied in terms of digitised imaging analysis. Here, we developed a method for socio-emotional behaviour measurement that is based on the video recordings under well-defined social context using animal models with variously social sensory interaction during development. The behaviour features digitized from the video recordings were visualised in a multivariate statistic space using principal component analysis. The clustering of the behaviour parameters suggested the existence of species- and stage-specific as well as cross-species behaviour modules. These modules were used to characterise the behaviour of children with or without autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). We found that socio-emotional behaviour is highly dependent on social context and the cross-species behaviour modules may predict neurobiological basis of ASDs.

Internet-based atlas of the primate spinal cord.

In 2009, we reported an online brain atlas of the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) at http://marmoset-brain.org:2008. Here we report new digital images of the primate spinal cord sections added to the website. We prepared histological sections of every segment of the spinal cord of the common marmoset, rhesus monkey and Japanese monkey with various staining techniques. The sections were scanned with Carl Zeiss MIRAX SCAN at light microscopic resolution. Obtained digital data were processed and converted into multi-resolutionary images with Adobe Photoshop and Zoomify Design. These images of the primate spinal cords are now available on the web via the Internet.

Susceptible period of socio-emotional development affected by constant exposure to daylight

As a diurnal experimental primate, the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) has recently contributed to numerous kinds of studies of neurobiological psychiatry as an essential pre-clinical model. The marmoset matures sexually within one or two years after birth. Thus, we can observe how the primate learns and develops psycho-cognitive functions through experiences in experimental environment for a much shorter period compared to that of humans. Longer daylight exposure may affect psychological development of children. In our research, we focus on raising marmosets under constant daylight from birth until various ages. In order to quantitatively evaluate the development of higher-ordered psychological functions, we designed a system of socio-behavioral tests and multivariate correlation analysis methods based on principal component analysis. With reference to the call and typical body movement expressed during a particular social context, we statistically inferred the emotional features of the subjects. In the current literature, we review our published results showing increased alert behaviors by constant light, and then, attempted to extend our additional analysis to seek age-dependent susceptibility to constant light. We then present the neurobiological mechanisms with reference to previous research reports. The current review suggests possible existence of a susceptible period earlier than three to five month-old in the environment-induced developmental disorder model, supposedly like attention deficit hyperactive disorders (ADHD) or oppositional defiant disorder (ODD).

Potential of a smartphone as a stress-free sensor of daily human behaviour

Behaviour is one of the most powerful objective signals that connotes psychological functions regulated by neuronal network systems. This study searched for simple behaviours using smartphone sensors with three axes for measuring acceleration, angular speed and direction. We used quantitative analytic methodology of pattern recognition for work contexts, individual workers and seasonal effects in our own longitudinally recorded data. Our 13 laboratory members were involved in the care of common marmosets and domestic chicks, which lived in separate rooms. They attached a smartphone to their front waist-belts during feeding and cleaning in five care tasks. Behavioural characteristics such as speed, acceleration and azimuth, pitch, and roll angles were monitored. Afterwards, participants noted subjective scores of warmth sensation and work efficiency. The multivariate time series behavioral data were characterized by the subjective scores and environmental factors such as room temperature, season, and humidity, using the linear mixed model. In contrast to high-precision but stress-inducing sensors, the mobile sensors measuring daily behaviours allowed us to quantify the effects of the psychological states and environmental factors on the behavioural traits.

Mini-atlas of the marmoset brain

A mini-atlas of the brain is designed to help students and young researchers who are not familiar with neuroanatomy. In the mini-atlas, a limited number of important nuclei and fiber tracts are shown on a small number of brain sections from posterior end to the anterior end of the brain. The first mini-atlas was introduced for the rat brain (Watson et al., 2010). Here we present a mini-atlas of the common marmoset (Callithrix jaccus), which is one of representative experimental primates for modern neuroscience. We further discuss the differences of brain structures between rodents and primates.