eNeurobiología - Revista electrónica

 

 

Ezequiel Uribe^1,2*, María Torres¹

¹Centro de Biofísica y Neurociencias. Laboratorio de Neurobiología Conductual. Escuela de Ciencias Biomédicas, Universidad de Carabobo. Valencia, Venezuela.

²Programa Doctoral en Ciencias Médicas, Universidad de Carabobo.

 

Resumen

Animals can adjust their behavior in correspondence to changes in stimuli and relational properties between stimuli that structure their changing environment; thus, it might be expected that an organism exposed to different environments (i.e. primates under different life conditions regarding number, type and distribution of objects and presence/absence of other individuals) embody different individual behavioral patterns, independently of its species membership, which allow it to adjust to environmental changes. In order to study this behavioral adjustment to different conditions, using a focal sampling with continuous recording, it was conducted a systematic observation of the behavior displayed by a captive group of vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops pygerythrus), detecting its temporal and spatial distribution. We videotaped the group during 30 consecutive days, 160 min per day, two 20 min period per day by individual (i.e. 40 min per day). Results showed that resting behaviors were predominant in all four subjects, whereas locomotion represented the tenth part of the time spent. Through the comparison of different studies made with the present group, it is discussed in terms of the possible functional relevance of geo-ecological and interactive factors in spatiotemporal behavior of captive animals and handling conditions to which they are exposed in their life.

 

Keywords: Catatonia, Biological psychiatry, Hebephrenia, Paranoid delusion, Prefrontal cortex, Endophenotype.

 

*Correspondencia: Ezequiel Uribe, MD. Apartado postal 3798. El Trigal, Valencia 2001, Venezuela.Tel: +58-241-8666259, Fax: +58-241-8685321. E-mail: euribe@uc.edu.ve, ezequiel.uribe@hotmail.com

 

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