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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Effects Of Sleep-Deprivation On Decision-Making And Action Selection, Shalin N. Shah
Effects Of Sleep-Deprivation On Decision-Making And Action Selection, Shalin N. Shah
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This thesis addresses neuroscience research focusing on the brain’s mechanisms underlying behavioral choice, or prioritization, and decision-making. The research has been conducted with Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly – a good model from both the behavioral and neural perspectives. This project specifically observes the co-regulation of sleep with two other behaviors – courtship and oviposition. The overlap between the sleep and courtship circuits in the brain should provide a good model for behavioral prioritization, and the interaction between sleep and ovipositional preference should provide a model for understanding the effects of sleep on decision-making. All three of these adaptive behaviors …
Tracking Behavioural And Neuronal Responses To Social Pheromones: Insights From A Drosophila Model, Justin R. Croft
Tracking Behavioural And Neuronal Responses To Social Pheromones: Insights From A Drosophila Model, Justin R. Croft
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
If eusociality evolved through modification of pre-social mechanisms for regulating personal reproduction, then even insects like Drosophila may be vulnerable to latent effects of 'queen' pheromone. Here, I test if male fruit flies respond to a eusocial queen bee pheromone. I found that male flies were attracted to queen bee pheromone, and pheromone-treated males raised the intensity of their courting towards conspecific females. These novel observations from Drosophila suggest that male flies have the capacity to respond to queen pheromone in a manner that is comparable to the native response from male (drone) bees. I therefore optimized a nuclear factor …
The Effect Of Age On Social Behaviour In Drosophila Melanogaster And The Progeny Of Aged Parents, Dova Brenman
The Effect Of Age On Social Behaviour In Drosophila Melanogaster And The Progeny Of Aged Parents, Dova Brenman
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Recent studies have linked neuropsychiatric disorders to older parents. These disorders often include changes in social behaviours like the social spacing between neighbouring individuals, which can be modeled in organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster. I investigated the effects of aging on the social space between neighbouring D. melanogaster and how aging impacts the next generation. To achieve this, I used the social space assay and found that individuals become less social with age and that this effect is passed on to the first generation only. Additionally, accelerating the physiological process of aging via increased rearing temperatures or exposure to …