Behavioural comparison of human-animal (dog) and human-robot (AIBO) interactions

The behavioural analysis of human-robot interactions can help in developing socially interactive robots. The current study analyzes human-robot interaction with Theme software and the corresponding pattern detection algorithm. The method is based on the analysis of the temporal structure of the interactions by detecting T-patterns in the behaviour. We have compared humans' (children and adults) play behaviour interacting either with an AIBO or a living dog puppy. The analysis based on measuring latencies and frequencies of behavioural units suggested limited differences, e.g. the latency of humans touching the dog/AIBO was similar. In addition other differences could be accounted for by the limited abilities of the robot to interact with objects. Although the number of interactive T-patterns did not significantly differ among the groups but the partner's type (whether humans were playing with dog or AIBO) had a significant effect on the structure of the patterns. Both children and adults terminated T-patterns more frequently when playing with AIBO than when playing with the dog puppy, which suggest that the robot has a limited ability to engage in temporally structured behavioural interactions with humans. As other human studies suggest that the temporal complexity of the interaction is good measure of the partner's attitude, we suggest that more attention should be paid in the future to the robots' ability to engage in cooperative interaction with humans.     

A simple reason for a big difference: wolves do not look back at humans,but dogs do

The present investigations were undertaken to compare interspecific communicative abilities of dogs and wolves, which were socialized to humans at comparable levels. The first study demonstrated that socialized wolves were able to locate the place of hidden food indicated by the touching and, to some extent, pointing cues provided by the familiar human experimenter, but their performance remained inferior to that of dogs. In the second study, we have found that, after undergoing training to solve a simple manipulation task, dogs that are faced with an insoluble version of the same problem look/gaze at the human, while socialized wolves do not. Based on these observations, we suggest that the key difference between dog and wolf behavior is the dogs' ability to look at the human's face. Since looking behavior has an important function in initializing and maintaining communicative interaction in human communication systems, we suppose that by positive feedback processes (both evolutionary and ontogenetically) the readiness of dogs to look at the human face has lead to complex forms of dog-human communication that cannot be achieved in wolves even after extended socialization.     

Communicative interactions improve visual detection of biological motion

Background

In the context of interacting activities requiring close-body contact such as fighting or dancing, the actions of one agent can be used to predict the actions of the second agent [1]. In the present study, we investigated whether interpersonal predictive coding extends to interactive activities – such as communicative interactions - in which no physical contingency is implied between the movements of the interacting individuals.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Participants observed point-light displays of two agents (A and B) performing separate actions. In the communicative condition, the action performed by agent B responded to a communicative gesture performed by agent A. In the individual condition, agent A''s communicative action was substituted with a non-communicative action. Using a simultaneous masking detection task, we demonstrate that observing the communicative gesture performed by agent A enhanced visual discrimination of agent B.

Conclusions/Significance

Our finding complements and extends previous evidence for interpersonal predictive coding, suggesting that the communicative gestures of one agent can serve as a predictor for the expected actions of the respondent, even if no physical contact between agents is implied.     

Memory reprocessing in corticocortical and hippocampocortical neuronal ensembles.

Hippocampal cells that fire together during behaviour exhibit enhanced activity correlations during subsequent sleep, with some preservation of temporal order information. Thus, information reflecting experiences during behaviour is re-expressed in hippocampal circuits during subsequent ''offline'' periods, as postulated by some theories of memory consolidation. If the hippocampus orchestrates the reinstatement of experience-specific activity patterns in the neocortex, as also postulated by such theories, then correlation patterns both within the neocortex and between hippocampus and neocortex should also re-emerge during sleep. Ensemble recordings were made in the posterior parietal neocortex, in CA1, and simultaneously in both areas, in seven rats. Each session involved an initial sleep episode (S1), behaviour on a simple maze (M), and subsequent sleep (S2). The ensemble activity-correlation structure within and between areas during S2 resembled that of M more closely than did the correlation pattern of S1. Temporal order (i.e. the asymmetry of the cross-correlogram) was also preserved within, but not between, structures. Thus, traces of recent experience are re-expressed in both hippocampal and neocortical circuits during sleep, and the representations in the two areas tend to correspond to the same experience. The poorer preservation of temporal firing biases between neurons in the different regions may reflect the less direct synaptic coupling between regions than within them. Alternatively, it could result from a shift, between behavioural states, in the relative dominance relations in the corticohippocampal dialogue. Between-structure order will be disrupted, for example, if, during behaviour, neocortical patterns tend to drive corresponding hippocampal patterns, whereas during sleep the reverse occurs. This possibility remains to be investigated.     

Statistical inference for multi-pathogen systems

There is growing interest in understanding the nature and consequences of interactions among infectious agents. Pathogen interactions can be operational at different scales, either within a co-infected host or in host populations where they co-circulate, and can be either cooperative or competitive. The detection of interactions among pathogens has typically involved the study of synchrony in the oscillations of the protagonists, but as we show here, phase association provides an unreliable dynamical fingerprint for this task. We assess the capacity of a likelihood-based inference framework to accurately detect and quantify the presence and nature of pathogen interactions on the basis of realistic amounts and kinds of simulated data. We show that when epidemiological and demographic processes are well understood, noisy time series data can contain sufficient information to allow correct inference of interactions in multi-pathogen systems. The inference power is dependent on the strength and time-course of the underlying mechanism: stronger and longer-lasting interactions are more easily and more precisely quantified. We examine the limitations of our approach to stochastic temporal variation, under-reporting, and over-aggregation of data. We propose that likelihood shows promise as a basis for detection and quantification of the effects of pathogen interactions and the determination of their (competitive or cooperative) nature on the basis of population-level time-series data.     

Cumulative Effect of Male's Displays in the Sexual Behaviour of the Smooth Newt Triturus vulgaris (Urodela,Salamandridae)1

The relevance of the temporal spacing of signals to the timing and nature of the receiver's response during a communicative process was studied in the sexual behaviour of the smooth newt Triturus vulgaris. The possibility that a high rate of stimulation allows an accumulation of the effects of successive signals was investigated by comparing sexual interactions leading and not leading to spermatophore deposition. Results showed that the difference between the two types of interactions lay only in temporal features of the stimulation provided by the male to the female. Females, although in a comparable initial state of receptivity and exposed to comparable amounts of stimulation, performed the act triggering spermatophore deposition by the male only in some interactions. Display bouts, in which the male displayed at short intervals (less than 4 s), were longer in interactions where spermatophore deposition took place than in the others. This suggests that courtship was effective if accumulation of the effects of male displays could occur. This proposition was supported by the observation of a progressive change in the immediate female response to a given male display in the group where courtship bouts were longer. Our results indicate the existence of a system of tonic communication (see Schleidt 1973) during the sexual behaviour of the smooth newt, in which the effects of the male displays accumulate over time until some critical threshold is reached in the female.     

Bearbeitergesteuerte Analyse von Verhaltenszeitreihen am Digitalrechner

1. Both the organization of behaviour and communicative interactions can be established by analyzing behavioural time series. By means of an analysis of this kind, conclusions about the control of behaviour and the principles of interindividual communication can be reached. An analysis may be based on simultaneous and successive behavioural events. In these multi-channel time series the temporal arrangement of patterns (“Strukturierung”), the organization and the conditions determining the occurrence of behavioural events can be specified.
2. Data-analysis by digital computer permits rapid processing of a large quantity of material in regard to several respects. “Sets of data” can be stored, thus enabling the user to correct, alter, combine and finally analyze them with respect to various questions. For this purpose, a program system for the digital processing of behavioural time series (title “PROVED”) was developed.
3. The course of behavioural events is composed of temporal patterns which are ordered in a definite hierarchy (Fig. 1). Several quantitative and qualitative characteristics (“Muster-Merkmale”) can be attributed to each pattern (Figs. 2,4). With the PROVED-System, the temporal arrangement of behavioural patterns is reestablished by the computer according to the control orders of the user. These orders must take into consideration the physiological relevance that is to be confirmed by an analysis of time serics (Fig. 3). The orders controlling the temporal arragement as well as the asignment of pattern characteristics to sets of data are available for further evaluation.
4. The PROVED-System includes several procedures involving input, output, storage, administration, correction, assignment of characteristics, temporal arrangement and analysis of data. The examiner can select and combine these procedures at will using statements of a particular control language.
5. During the first step of data analysis, a fixed number of parameters for each pattern is determined, the number of parameters varying with the complexity of the problem. Any measured value which is related to the pattern under investigation can be regarded as a parameter. During the second step, multidimensional frequency distributions of crossclassified parameters are established which can be examined by means of statistical tests (third step) (Figs. 5,6).
6. Determination of the parameters by the examiner decisively influences the further course of the analysis. The control statements for one parameter consist of two parts: 1. quality of the parameter (type of pattern, temporal distance, etc.), 2. position of the parameter in the behavioural time series (pattern under investigation, immediately subsequent pattern, next pattern with the same characteristics, etc.). The latter is determined by a series of shifts of indices controlled by the user (Fig. 7,8).
7. The PROVED-System can be applied to the analysis of various behavioural time series (succession of sounds, recordings of movements, observations of behavioural acts, etc.). Depending upon the aim of the analysis (temporal arrangement, organization, control of behaviour or communication), spontaneous behavioural events, input-output experiments (stimulus-reaction) and social interaction can be evaluated.

     

Novel approaches to monitor bacterial gene expression in infected tissue and host

Elucidating the complex and dynamic host-microbe interactions during infection requires, among other things, detailed knowledge of microbial gene expression in vivo. Recently, advances in fluorescence and bioluminescence detection techniques, as well as recombinase-based in vivo expression technology, have rendered monitoring virulence gene expression in vivo a feasible task. These techniques have been adapted by several laboratories to study the spatial and temporal patterns of virulence gene expression by organisms such as Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, Yersinia entercolitica and Vibrio cholerae during infection of tissue culture or animal models of infection.     

Reliance on head versus eyes in the gaze following of great apes and human infants: the cooperative eye hypothesis

As compared with other primates, humans have especially visible eyes (e.g., white sclera). One hypothesis is that this feature of human eyes evolved to make it easier for conspecifics to follow an individual's gaze direction in close-range joint attentional and communicative interactions, which would seem to imply especially cooperative (mututalistic) conspecifics. In the current study, we tested one aspect of this cooperative eye hypothesis by comparing the gaze following behavior of great apes to that of human infants. A human experimenter "looked" to the ceiling either with his eyes only, head only (eyes closed), both head and eyes, or neither. Great apes followed gaze to the ceiling based mainly on the human's head direction (although eye direction played some role as well). In contrast, human infants relied almost exclusively on eye direction in these same situations. These results demonstrate that humans are especially reliant on eyes in gaze following situations, and thus, suggest that eyes evolved a new social function in human evolution, most likely to support cooperative (mututalistic) social interactions.     

Arginine vasotocin regulation of interspecific cooperative behaviour in a cleaner fish

In an interspecific cooperative context, individuals must be prepared to tolerate close interactive proximity to other species but also need to be able to respond to relevant social stimuli in the most appropriate manner. The neuropeptides vasopressin and oxytocin and their non-mammalian homologues have been implicated in the evolution of sociality and in the regulation of social behaviour across vertebrates. However, little is known about the underlying physiological mechanisms of interspecific cooperative interactions. In interspecific cleaning mutualisms, interactions functionally resemble most intraspecific social interactions. Here we provide the first empirical evidence that arginine vasotocin (AVT), a non-mammalian homologue of arginine vasopressin (AVP), plays a critical role as moderator of interspecific behaviour in the best studied and ubiquitous marine cleaning mutualism involving the Indo-Pacific bluestreak cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus. Exogenous administration of AVT caused a substantial decrease of most interspecific cleaning activities, without similarly affecting the expression of conspecific directed behaviour, which suggests a differential effect of AVT on cleaning behaviour and not a general effect on social behaviour. Furthermore, the AVP-V1a receptor antagonist (manning compound) induced a higher likelihood for cleaners to engage in cleaning interactions and also to increase their levels of dishonesty towards clients. The present findings extend the knowledge of neuropeptide effects on social interactions beyond the study of their influence on conspecific social behaviour. Our evidence demonstrates that AVT pathways might play a pivotal role in the regulation of interspecific cooperative behaviour and conspecific social behaviour among stabilized pairs of cleaner fish. Moreover, our results suggest that the role of AVT as a neurochemical regulator of social behaviour may have been co-opted in the evolution of cooperative behaviour in an interspecific context, a hypothesis that is amenable to further testing on the potential direct central mechanism involved.     

Confirmation of the expression of a large set of conserved hypothetical proteins in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1

High-throughput "omic" technologies have allowed for a relatively rapid, yet comprehensive analysis of the global expression patterns within an organism in response to perturbations. In the current study, 9503 different tryptic peptides were identified with high confidence from capillary liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of 26 chemostat cultures of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 under various conditions. Using at least one distinctive and a total of two total peptide identifications per protein, we detected the expression of 758 conserved hypothetical proteins. This included 359 such proteins previously described [Kolker, E., Picone, A.F., Galperin, M.Y., Romine, M.F., Higdon, R., Makarova, K.S., Kolker, N., Anderson, G.A., Qiu, X., Auberry, K.J., Babnigg, G., Beliaev, A.S., Edlefsen, P., Elias, D.A., Gorby, Y.A., Holzman, T., Klappenbach, J.A., Konstantinidis, K.T., Land, M.L., Lipton, M.S., McCue, L.A., Monroe, M., Pasa-Tolic, L., Pinchuk, G., Purvine, S., Serres, M.H., Tsapin, S., Zakrajsek, B.A., Zhu, W., Zhou, J., Larimer, F.W., Lawrence, C.E., Riley, M., Collart, F.R., Yates, J.R., III, Smith, R.D., Giometti, C.S., Nealson, K.H., Fredrickson, J.K., Tiedje, J.M., 2005. Global profiling of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1: expression of hypothetical genes and improved functional annotations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 102, 2099-2104] with an additional 399 reported herein for the first time. The latter 399 proteins ranged from 5.3 to 208.3 kDa, with 44 being of 100 amino acid residues or less. Using a combination of information including peptide detection in cells grown under specific culture conditions and predictive algorithms such as PSORT and PSORT-B, possible/plausible functions are proposed for some conserved hypothetical proteins. Such proteins were found not only to be expressed, but 19 were only expressed under certain culturing conditions, thereby providing insight into potential functions. These findings also impact the genomic annotation for S. oneidensis MR-1 by confirming that these genes code for expressed proteins. Our results indicate that 399 proteins can now be upgraded from "conserved hypothetical protein" to "expressed protein in Shewanella," 19 of which appeared to be expressed under specific culture conditions.     

Wolves Are Better Imitators of Conspecifics than Dogs

Domestication is thought to have influenced the cognitive abilities of dogs underlying their communication with humans, but little is known about its effect on their interactions with conspecifics. Since domestication hypotheses offer limited predictions in regard to wolf-wolf compared to dog-dog interactions, we extend the cooperative breeding hypothesis suggesting that the dependency of wolves on close cooperation with conspecifics, including breeding but also territory defense and hunting, has created selection pressures on motivational and cognitive processes enhancing their propensity to pay close attention to conspecifics’ actions. During domestication, dogs’ dependency on conspecifics has been relaxed, leading to reduced motivational and cognitive abilities to interact with conspecifics. Here we show that 6-month-old wolves outperform same aged dogs in a two-action-imitation task following a conspecific demonstration. While the wolves readily opened the apparatus after a demonstration, the dogs failed to solve the problem. This difference could not be explained by differential motivation, better physical insight of wolves, differential developmental pathways of wolves and dogs or a higher dependency of dogs from humans. Our results are best explained by the hypothesis that higher cooperativeness may come together with a higher propensity to pay close attention to detailed actions of others and offer an alternative perspective to domestication by emphasizing the cooperativeness of wolves as a potential source of dog-human cooperation.     

Worker connectivity: a simulation model of variation in worker communication and its effects on task performance

We develop a simulation model of worker connectivity to analyze how variation in worker communication can influence task performance. The model generates predictions about how colony demography, worker communicative behavior, and worker cognition will affect the rate of recruitment of workers to a new task. The model explores some mechanisms for modulating the recruitment of workers. Under the conditions of our model– probabilistic interactions that lower worker’s response thresholds to tasks– worker recruitment follows a logistic growth pattern. The rate of recruiting workers increases exponentially toward an inflection point when 50% of the available force has been activated, then decreases toward the upper asymptote (all workers recruited). Many relevant features of colony design and worker behavior, including group size, probability of interacting, and strength of interaction effects on receivers, show a positive but decelerating effect on the rate of worker recruitment. We also identify features of worker cognition that can influence task recruitment, focusing on the time course of worker’s memories about previous interactions. Both learning (e.g., sensitization) and forgetting about previous interactions can influence the rate of worker recruitment to a task. The model suggests that worker cognition may be shaped by natural selection on task performance at the colony level. Forgetting about interactions may be especially costly, because it leads to unpredictable patterns of worker recruitment. We also show that social inhibition, when coupled with excitatory interactions, can effectively modulate worker recruitment at the colony level. Received 9 December 2006; revised 23 May 2007; accepted 30 May 2007.     

Two-step ligand binding and cooperativity. A model to describe the cooperative binding of myosin subfragment 1 to regulated actin.

The binding of actin to myosin subfragment 1 (S1) has been shown to occur as a two-step reaction. In the first step actin is weakly bound and then the complex isomerizes to the "rigor type" acto-S1 complex (Coates, J. H., A. H. Criddle, and M. A. Geeves, 1985 Biochem. J., 232:351-356). We propose here a model in which troponin/tropomyosin (Tn/Tm) controls the actin-S1 interaction by inhibiting the isomerization step. In this model the (actin)7 Tn/Tm unit is assumed to exist in two states: open and closed. S1 can bind to either of the two states but only the open form allows the isomerization reaction to take place. We demonstrate that this model can account for the cooperative binding of S1 and S1 nucleotide complexes to actin. The model provides a way of integrating both the effects of calcium and nucleotide on actin-S1 interactions.     

Shelter-in-place orders,loneliness, and collaborative behavior

The outbreak of COVID-19 resulted in numerous jurisdictions instituting “shelter-in-place'' orders (SPOs). While designed to restrict or impede normal levels of social proximity, SPOs altered the way or degree to which workers interact with each other and have likely imposed a toll on employee well-being. The authors exploit the temporal and geographic variation in U.S. SPOs to investigate their effect on loneliness among online workers. Variation in loneliness is then linked to worker behavior in a simple two-person, collaborative task (a framed stag hunt). The analysis reveals a strong positive relationship between SPOs and loneliness on average, peaking during the wave associated with the most prolonged duration of isolation. SPOs disproportionately impacted workers in occupations not substantially involving teamwork or collaboration. As reported loneliness increases, the probability of an individual collaborating in a simple interactive workplace scenario decreases significantly. In the final survey wave, SPOs are scarcer, loneliness subsides, and cooperative behavior increases dramatically.     

Factors influencing the temporal patterns of dyadic behaviours and interactions between domestic cats and their owners

Human-cat dyads may be similar in interaction structure to human dyads because many humans regard their cats as being social companions. Consequently, we predict that dyadic structure will be contingent on owner and cat personalities, sex, and age as well as duration of cohabitation of the partners. Forty owner-cat dyads were visited in their homes, on four occasions, during which their behaviours and interactions were video-taped. Behaviour was coded from tape and was analysed for temporal (t)-patterns using Theme^® (Noldus; Magnusson, 1996). Owner personality was assessed using the NEO-FFI. Five cat personality axes were identified by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) based on observer-rated items and on coded behaviours. We found that the higher the owner in neuroticism, the fewer t-patterns occurred per minute. The higher the owner in extraversion, the higher was the number of non-overlapping patterns per minute. The more “active” the cat, the fewer non-overlapping patterns occurred per minute, but the higher was the event type complexity. The older the cat, the lower was dyadic event type complexity. We suggest that basic temporal structures similar to those of human-cat dyads may also be found in other long-term and complex dyadic relationships, including those between humans.