Wilson, S. orcid.org/0000-0001-8125-5133 (2017) Modelling the emergence of rodent filial huddling from physiological huddling. Royal Society Open Science, 4. p. 170885. ISSN 2054-5703
Abstract
Huddling behaviour in neonatal rodents reduces the metabolic costs of physiological thermoregulation. However, animals continue to huddle into adulthood, at ambient temperatures where they are able to sustain a basal metabolism in isolation from the huddle. This 'filial huddling' in older animals is known to be guided by olfactory rather than thermal cues. The present study aimed to test whether thermally rewarding contacts between young mice, experienced when thermogenesis in brown adipose fat tissue (BAT) is highest, could give rise to olfactory preferences that persist as filial huddling interactions in adults. To this end, a simple model was constructed to fit existing data on the development of mouse thermal physiology and behaviour. The form of the model that emerged yields a remarkable explanation for filial huddling; associative learning maintains huddling into adulthood via processes that reduce thermodynamic entropy from BAT-metabolism and increase information about social ordering amongst littermates.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Keywords: | thermoregulation; self-organization; metabolism; entropy; huddling; brown adipose fat tissue |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 23 Nov 2017 15:55 |
Last Modified: | 23 Nov 2017 15:55 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170885 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Royal Society, The |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1098/rsos.170885 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:124360 |