Sex differences in the cerebral lateralization of a cichlid fish when detouring to view emotionally conditioned stimuli |
| |
Authors: | Adam R. Reddon |
| |
Affiliation: | Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada |
| |
Abstract: | The lateralization of emotion has been described in a variety of animals. The right hemisphere has been implicated in the processing of negative emotions while positive emotions are processed in the left. Most animal studies of this phenomenon to date have used intrinsically emotionally arousing stimuli and there are few examples of lateralized responses to learned emotional triggers. It is known that males and females may demonstrate different patterns of lateralization, and that these sex differences may interact with other variables. We investigated the lateralized response of male and female convict cichlids to emotionally conditioned stimuli. One stimulus was given an appetitive (positive emotional valence) association by pairing with food. The other stimulus was given an aversive (negative emotional valence) association by pairing with a chemical alarm signal. We found that males tend to be more strongly lateralized to aversive stimuli while females are more strongly lateralized when responding to appetitive stimuli. |
| |
Keywords: | Archocentrus nigrofasciatus Cerebral lateralization Convict cichlids Damage-induced alarm signals Emotional conditioning Sex differences |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |