Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews (2011) 36, 114-132; doi: 10.1038/npp.2010.165; published online 29 September 2010″
“Interest in social learning has been fueled by claims of culture in wild animals. These remain controversial because alternative explanations to social learning, such as asocial learning or ecological differences, remain difficult to refute. Compared with laboratory-based

research, the study of social learning in natural contexts is in its infancy. Here, for the first time, we apply two new statistical MLN2238 mouse methods, option-bias analysis and network-based diffusion analysis, to data from the wild, complemented by standard inferential statistics. Contrary to common thought regarding the cognitive abilities of prosimian primates, our evidence is consistent with social learning within subgroups in the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), supporting the theory of directed social learning (Coussi-Korbel & Fragaszy, 1995). Cyclopamine ic50 We also caution that, as the toolbox for capturing social learning in natural contexts grows, care is required in ensuring that the methods employed are appropriate in particular, regarding social dynamics among study subjects. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded

from http://lb.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.”
“Many of the individual differences in cognition, motivation, and learning-and the disruption of these processes in neurological conditions-are influenced by genetic factors. We provide an integrative synthesis across

human and animal studies, focusing on a recent spate of evidence implicating a role for genes controlling dopaminergic function in frontostriatal circuitry, including COMT, DARPP-32, DAT1, DRD2, and DRD4. These genetic effects are interpreted within theoretical frameworks developed in the context of the broader cognitive and computational neuroscience Pazopanib chemical structure literature, constrained by data from pharmacological, neuroimaging, electrophysiological, and patient studies. In this framework, genes modulate the efficacy of particular neural computations, and effects of genetic variation are revealed by assays designed to be maximally sensitive to these computations. We discuss the merits and caveats of this approach and outline a number of novel candidate genes of interest for future study. Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews (2011) 36, 133-152; doi: 10.1038/npp.2010.96; published online 14 July 2010″
“Experiments in captivity have provided evidence for social learning, but it remains challenging to demonstrate social learning in the wild. Recently, we developed network-based diffusion analysis (NBDA; 2009) as a new approach to inferring social learning from observational data.