The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is known to be critically involved in strategy switching, attentional set shifting, and inhibition of prepotent responses. A central feature of this kind of behavioral flexibility is the ability to resolve conflicting response tendencies, suggesting a general role of the PFC in resolving interference. If so, the PFC…

We present a laboratory exercise that leverages student interest in genetics to observe and understand evolution by natural selection. Students begin with white-eyed fruit fly populations, to which they introduce a single advantageous variant (one male with red eyes). The superior health and vision associated with having the red-eye-color allele…

Specific phobias are among the most common anxiety disorders, especially in children. Unfortunately, a paucity of literature exists regarding the treatment of specific phobia in young children, despite the knowledge that traditional techniques (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy [CBT]) may not be practical. Therefore, the purpose of this article…

Red snapper, "Lutjanus campechanus," were sampled with hook and line at natural (n = 33) and artificial (n = 27) reef sites in the northern Gulf of Mexico from 2009-2011. Stomachs (n = 708) were extracted and their contents preserved for gut content analysis, and muscle tissue samples (n = 200) were dissected and frozen for stable…

Populations of the Eastern subterranean termite, "Reticulitermes flavipes," are widespread throughout most of the eastern United States. Subterranean termites have the ability to survive flooding conditions by lowering their metabolism. This lesson investigates the connection between the ability of termites to lower their metabolism to…

Property is rare in most nonhuman primates, most likely because their lifestyles are not conducive to it. Nonetheless, just because these species do not frequently maintain property does not mean that they lack the propensity to do so. Primates show respect for possession, as well as behaviors related to property, such as irrational decision…

Animal metacognition is an active, growing research area, and one part of metacognition is flexible information-seeking behavior. In Roberts et al. (2009), pigeons failed an intuitive information-seeking task. They basically refused, despite multiple fostering experiments, to view a sample image before attempting to find its match. Roberts et al.…

Purpose: Therapies for certain voice disorders purport principles of skeletal muscle rehabilitation to increase muscle mass, strength, and endurance. However, applicability of limb muscle rehabilitation to the laryngeal muscles has not been tested. In this study, the authors examined the feasibility of the rat thyroarytenoid muscle to remodel as a…

We used giant African pouched rats ("Cricetomys gambianus") as land mine-detection animals in Mozambique because they have an excellent sense of smell, weigh too little to activate mines, and are native to sub-Saharan Africa, and therefore are resistant to local parasites and diseases. In 2009 the rats searched 93,400 m[superscript 2] of…

Brushtail possums ("Trichosurus vulpecula") were trained to press a right lever when a tone was presented (a tone-on trial) and a left lever when a tone was not presented (a tone-off trial) to gain access to food. During training the tone was set at 80 dB(A), with a frequency of 0.88 kH for 3 possums and of 4 kH for the other 2. Once accuracy was…

Recently, the zebrafish ("Danio rerio") has been established as a key animal model in neuroscience. Behavioral, genetic, and immunohistochemical techniques have been used to describe the connectivity of diverse neural circuits. However, few studies have used zebrafish to understand the function of cerebral structures or to study neural circuits.…

Behavioral extinction is an active form of new learning involving the prediction of nonreward where reward has previously been present. The expression of extinction learning can be disrupted by the presentation of reward itself or reward-predictive stimuli (reinstatement) as well as the passage of time (spontaneous recovery) or contextual changes…

The Ts65Dn mouse is the best-studied animal model for Down syndrome. In the experiments described here, NMDA-mediated or mGluR-mediated LTD was induced in the CA1 region of hippocampal slices from Ts65Dn and euploid control mice by bath application of 20 [mu]M NMDA for 3 min and 50 [mu]M DHPG for 5 min, respectively. We found that Ts65Dn mice…

Education has institutionalized a process that reifies cultures, ecological communities, and ultimately evolution itself. This enclosure has lessened our sensitivity to the pedagogical (eteragogical) nature of our lived relations with other people and with other living beings. By acknowledging that learning and teaching go on between species,…

Rats were able to search multiple food cups in a foraging task and successfully return to a fixed, but not a variable, start location. Reducing the number of food cups to be searched resulted in an improvement in performance in the variable start condition. Performance was better when only one or two food cups had to be visited but was still…