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Laterality in social and locomotory behaviour of domestic pigs (Sus scrofa f. domestica)
Kunclová, Kristýna ; Špinka, Marek (advisor) ; Nekovářová, Tereza (referee)
The aim of this diploma thesis is to find out whether pigs exhibit laterality in social behavior, especially the laterality of rotational movements in game behavior and social interactions. We aimed also to explore how this laterality is influenced by other factors, especially the possibilities of playful behavior in ontogenesis, personality and others social and non-social factors. Alternatively, whether the degree of laterality determined varies depending on the social situation (game / aggression) and whether is influenced by the litter. I have investigated this behavior for 64 pigs in 16 litters from videotapes of their social behavior. For each pig, I recorded the playing element and the preferential side. For individual game elements I did not find any preference for rotation at the population level and only a slight tendency for individual laterality. For social game elements, I have shown a weak population tendency to prefer left side, but only for a group of more playing pigs. The main contribution of this work is the symmetry found in the implementation of individual game elements and, on the contrary, the observed laterality at the population level for social game behavior. Since the laterality of playful behavior has not yet been investigated, it is possible that this symmetry is...
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Inter-individual differences in behaviour of laboratory rats
Rudolfová, Veronika ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
Number of studies report that even when experimental animals are subjected to the exact same conditions, they differ in their behaviour. If these differences were stable in time and across several experimental procedures, we could talk about personality. This diploma thesis studies inter-individual differences in behaviour of laboratory rats (Long Evans strain) in a series of experiments conducted in early ontogeny and in adult age. Apart from analysing inter-individual differences in behaviour and personality of experimental animals, this thesis has two main aims. The first aim is assessing stability of inter-individual differences in behaviour throughout ontogeny. The second aim is to explore possible link between inter-individual differences in behaviour and performance in cognitive tests. We confirmed the existence of inter-individual difference in behaviour in laboratory rats. In this thesis we were, however, not able to assess personality of experimental animals. The differences in behaviour were best described by behaviour in Open field test and Elevated plus maze test. Our results also show marked differences between successive trials of these experiments. We also report that performance in Active allothetic place avoidance is not linked to performance in Morris water maze, even though both...
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Social cognition in birds Testing under laboratory conditions
Vondráčková, Nikola ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Fuchs, Roman (referee)
The thesis focuses on avian social cognition and its experimental methods in laboratory environment. Social cognition is the ability to know each other based on individual experience. Perception, attention, reasoning, memory and communication are the necessary cognitive competence of social cognition. Some cognitive domains are exclusively in social cognition - for example communication, theory of mind etc. Species of birds living in social groups constitute the social environment in which individuals respond to each other. Research subject of this thesis consists of these social interactions. Emphasis is placed mainly on parrots and corvids. The aim of this study is to review methods which have been used in order to test social cognition as well as critical evaluation of these methods. Key words: social cognition, cooperation, competition, laboratory tests
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Mirror neuron system: Mechanisms and functions
Loginova, Alisa ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Petrásek, Tomáš (referee)
Mirror neurons (MN) are a group of neurons with extraordinary visuomotor character. Their activation is connected to an observation of a certain action and its execution, if the action was already in motoric repertoire of the observer. MN were firstly identified in macaque's brain, with later identification in human's brain. The most important structures where we can find the MN are Broca's area located in the inferior part of frontal gyrus (IFG), premotor cortex and superior parietal lobule (SPL). The functions of MN are various, they take part in action understanding, imitation, learning and language. According to present knowledge, they were assigned a role in social cognition - while experiencing empathy and theory of mind (ToM). Empathy can be defined as sharing of another person's emotions. ToM highlights the importance of one's ability to represent metal states of other people, knowledge, wishes and experiences. It leads towards understanding and anticipating of another person's actions. Additionally to MN, amygdala, insula and basal ganglia are also important in processes of social cognition. Impairments of social cognitive skills are in autism, schizophrenia and psychopathy. Key words: mirror neuron system, motor area, social cognition, empathy, theory of mind
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Interval Timing and Emotional Modulation
Šafránková, Kristýna ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Telenský, Petr (referee)
This bachelor thesis focuses on time perception, a field of study pursued extensively by psy- chologists, neuroscientists, and cognitive linguistic researchers. More specifically, this paper will examine the issue of "interval timing" (i.e. an individual's ability to perceive time intervals in seconds or minutes). Time perception is influenced by several factors, of which emotional modulation has been postulated as the most crucial. Examining the physiological mechanisms of emotional modulation and pacemaker-accumulator, the striatal model of time perception along with its role in emotional modulation form the contributions of this thesis. Key words: interval timing, dopamine, emotions, the striatal beat-frequency model
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Animal model of schizophrenia and time-space integration in the role of AAPA
Janďourková, Pavla ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Valeš, Karel (referee)
Temporal and spatial cognition constitute basic elements of the cognitive function. Both of these competences are important for the individual's orientation and survival and there are likely to be different interactions between them. Perception of time, unlike spatial navigation and memory, is less explored. Impairments of interval timing occur in many neurodegenera- tive and neuropsychiatric disorders. According to current studies it is evident that timing is impaired even in patients with schizophrenia, but the results are still ambiguous. The aim of our work was to test the AAPA task in the time-place integration in the ani- mal model of schizophrenia. In the future, it could help to clarify the impairments of the time perception in patients with schizophrenia. In contrast to the classic AAPA task, our version included alternating of phases of light and darkness. The assumption of the experiment was that the solution of the task by rats in the dark is more dependent on the timing strategy than the solution of the task during the light, which is dependent on the spatial orientation. In the first phase of the experiment, the rats adopted both strategies - spatial (during the light phase of the session) and timing (during the dark phase). In the next phase of the experiment, we tested the animal...
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Neurobiological Correlates of Episodic-like Memory
Oravcová, Ivana ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Stuchlík, Aleš (referee)
Declarative memory is characterized as a conscious, explicit memory. Declarative memory consists of two essential systems, semantic memory and episodic memory. Episodic memory enables us to recall specific past events. A simplified model, so called Episodic-like memory is often used to study episodic memory mechanisms. According to this model, all events are stored in a contextual framework consisting of three basic components: identity of the object ('what' happened), temporal information ('when' it occurred) and spatial information ('where' did it happen). This type of memory is testable not only in humans but also in animal models. Aim of this diploma thesis is to study the neuronal substrate of individual components of episodic memory in healthy volunteers by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and ecologically valid tasks designed in virtual reality environment. Results obtained in the fMRI paradigm show that apart from common neuronal substrate of episodic memory, additional brain structures are responsible for recollection of individual components of the episodic-like memory. Behavioral data indicate that the demands of the recollection of individual components is not equivalent. Additional analyses with parcellation of the brain to individual structures and consecutive...
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Spontaneous preference for colors in humans and non-human primates: Comparative study
Skalníková, Petra ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
Colors and color-perception may play an important role in animal ethology (foraging, intra or inter-species communication). However, trichromatic color vision is quite rare among mammals and occurs only in some primate species. Humans, apes, and most of the Old World primates are trichromats, whereas color vision among New World primate species varies strikingly. The pigment gene perciving longer wavelenghts (red) have appeared most recently. Moreover, the pigment genes for the perception of red color have appear independently in these two primates lines (Old and New World) (Kainz et al, 1998). Although the genetic mechanism of trichromacy is quite understood, the question remains, what was the adaptive advantage responsible for the spreading of the above mentioned genes. The basic functions of trichromatic vision may be better detection of food (folivory and frugivory hypothesis), signaling or warning functions. The main goals of the thesis is to study spontaneous preference for color in children (pre- school and school age) and non-human Old World primates who have routine trichromic vision. Moreover, the thesis will focus on preference of red color to understand what was an adaptive function of red color perception. We assume that the spontaneous preference for color may reflect an adaptive...
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