An 'instinct for learning': the learning flights and walks of bees, wasps and ants from the 1850s to now.

The learning flights and walks of bees, wasps and ants are precisely coordinated movements that enable insects to memorise the visual surroundings of their nest or other significant places such as foraging sites. These movements occur on the first few occasions that an insect leaves its nest. They are of special interest because their discovery in the middle of the 19th century provided perhaps the first evidence that insects can learn and are not solely governed by instinct. Here, we recount the history of research on learning flights from their discovery to the present day. The first studies were conducted by skilled naturalists and then, over the following 50 years, by neuroethologists examining the insects' learning behaviour in the context of experiments on insect navigation and its underlying neural mechanisms. The most important property of these movements is that insects repeatedly fixate their nest and look in other favoured directions, either in a preferred compass direction, such as North, or towards preferred objects close to the nest. Nest facing is accomplished through path integration. Memories of views along a favoured direction can later guide an insect's return to its nest. In some ant species, the favoured direction is adjusted to future foraging needs. These memories can then guide both the outward and homeward legs of a foraging trip. Current studies of central areas of the insect brain indicate what regions implement the behavioural manoeuvres underlying learning flights and the resulting visual memories.

Phenotypic plasticity and archetype: a response to common objections to the biological theory of archetype and instinct.

Since Jung's death in 1961, scholars have attempted to integrate growing biological science data into Jungian concepts such as the collective unconscious, instincts and the archetypes. This enterprise has been challenging due to persistent false dichotomies of gene and environment occasionally arising. Recent works by Roesler (2022a, 2022b) for example, have raised objections to the biological theory of archetypes, but the objections are plagued by such dichotomies. The concept of phenotypic plasticity, however, helps to both avoid this problem as well as bridge the gap between competing theories into a more integrated model with solid biological foundations.

Depuis la mort de Jung en 1961, les chercheurs ont tenté d'intégrer les données nouvelles de la biologie avec les concepts Jungiens tels que l'inconscient collectif, les instincts et les archétypes. Cette initiative a rencontré des difficultés car des dichotomies fausses mais tenaces sur le sujet des gènes et de l'environnement se manifestaient. Les travaux récents de Roesler (2022a, 2022b) par exemple ont exprimé des objections à la théorie biologique des archétypes. Cependant ces objections sont biaisées par les dichotomies mentionnées. Le concept de plasticité phénotypique, cependant, aide à la fois à éviter ce problème et à former une passerelle entre des théories rivales et un modèle mieux intégré et doté de solides fondements biologiques.

Desde la muerte de Jung en 1961, académicos han intentado integrar data creciente de las ciencias biológicas a conceptos Junguianos como inconsciente colectivo, instintos y arquetipos. Esta empresa ha sido desafiada debido al surgimiento ocasional de persistentes falsas dicotomías entre genes y medio ambiente. Trabajos recientes de Roesler (2022a, 2022b), por ejemplo, han planteado objeciones a la teoría biológica del arquetipo, pero las objeciones se encuentran afectadas por semejantes dicotomías. El concepto de plasticidad fenotípica, sin embargo, ayuda a evitar este problema, así como a subsanar la brecha entre teorías contrapuestas, hacia un modelo más integrado con fundamentos biógicos sólidos.

Reflections on masochism: An introduction.

Masochism is central to all pathologies and its relevance in clinical practise cannot be underestimated. The initial connection made by Freud was that masochism was a component or partial instinct, still operating within the pleasure principle. The relationship between masochism and the theory of drives marks a main theoretical difference in the different authors' explorations of this subject. The understanding of what is meant by 'masochism' gained complexity following Freud's postulation of a life and death drive (which is more or less contemporary with his 1924 paper on masochism) and the differences made by him between 'primary' and 'secondary' masochism. This introduction to the papers presented in this section will address some of these differences, as well as exploring the notions of primary erotogenic masochism, feminine and moral masochism. It will also look at the notion of binding /unbinding of the life/death drives, and the role of the superego. It will introduce the different papers by Novick and Novick, Bourdin, Frank and Persano on developmental perspectives, primary masochism, views on French analysts such as Benno Rosenberg and on Kleinian ideas on the subject as well as on the role of the body, pain and self harm.

Male and female mice display consistent lifelong ability to address potential life-threatening cues using different post-threat coping strategies.

BACKGROUND: Sex differences ranging from physiological functions to pathological disorders are developmentally hard-wired in a broad range of animals, from invertebrates to humans. These differences ensure that animals can display appropriate behaviors under a variety of circumstances, such as aggression, hunting, sleep, mating, and parental care, which are often thought to be important in the acquisition of resources, including territory, food, and mates. Although there are reports of an absence of sexual dimorphism in the context of innate fear, the question of whether there is sexual dimorphism of innate defensive behavior is still an open question. Therefore, an in-depth investigation to determine whether there are sex differences in developmentally hard-wired innate defensive behaviors in life-threatening circumstances is warranted. RESULTS: We found that innate defensive behavioral responses to potentially life-threatening stimuli between males and females were indistinguishable over their lifespan. However, by using 3 dimensional (3D)-motion learning framework analysis, we found that males and females showed different behavioral patterns after escaping to the refuge. Specifically, the defensive "freezing" occurred primarily in males, whereas females were more likely to return directly to exploration. Moreover, there were also no estrous phase differences in innate defensive behavioral responses after looming stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that visually-evoked innate fear behavior is highly conserved throughout the lifespan in both males and females, while specific post-threat coping strategies depend on sex. These findings indicate that innate fear behavior is essential to both sexes and as such, there are no evolutionary-driven sex differences in defensive ability.

Human thirst behavior requires transformation of sensory inputs by intrinsic brain networks.

BACKGROUND: To survive and thrive, many animals, including humans, have evolved goal-directed behaviors that can respond to specific physiological needs. An example is thirst, where the physiological need to maintain water balance drives the behavioral basic instinct to drink. Determining the neural basis of such behaviors, including thirst response, can provide insights into the way brain-wide systems transform sensory inputs into behavioral outputs. However, the neural basis underlying this spontaneous behavior remains unclear. Here, we provide a model of the neural basis of human thirst behavior. RESULTS: We used fMRI, coupled with functional connectivity analysis and serial-multiple mediation analysis, we found that the physiological need for water is first detected by the median preoptic nucleus (MnPO), which then regulates the intention of drinking via serial large-scale spontaneous thought-related intrinsic network interactions that include the default mode network, salience network, and frontal-parietal control network. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates that the transformation in humans of sensory inputs for a single physiological need, such as to maintain water balance, requires large-scale intrinsic brain networks to transform this input into a spontaneous human behavioral response.

Society for the History of Psychology news and notes.

Cheiron's Book Prize Committee is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2022 Prize is Nadine Weidman, Lecturer on the History of Science at Harvard University, for her book Killer Instinct: The Popular Science of Human Nature in Twentieth-Century America. In other news from the Society for the History of Psychology, Marjorie Lorch has recently published an article on how the concept of a matched control group was initially developed in neuropsychological testing. Lorch, M. P. (2022). Defining 'normal': Methodological issues in Aphasia and intelligence research. Cortex, 153, 224-234. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Autoimmunity and its expression in the analytic situation: A contemporary reflection on our inherent self-destructiveness.

This article explores the psychical expression of autoimmunity in the analytic situation; it is informed by biological theories of autoimmunity in contemporary immunology. Several of my patients developed autoimmune conditions in the course of their analyses, leading me to consider the role of psychical change in disrupting one's somatopsychic equilibrium. In the psychoanalytic literature, autoimmunity is used metaphorically for attack against what is foreign or unwanted in ourselves. Contemporary immunology, however, suggests a somewhat different metaphor. "Self-reactive" cells present in the body may attack self unless suppressed by inhibitory mechanisms. Biologically, limited self-destructiveness is necessary, but in autoimmune disease it becomes excessive and pathological. I suggest that the presence of biological "self-reactivity" implies an inherent self-destructiveness in line with Freud's thinking on the death instinct; the notion that this self-destructiveness also has adaptive aspects may contribute to our understanding of Freud's ideas. In three vignettes I illustrate clinical application of a modified metaphor of autoimmunity, finding that not only is the fusion of life and death instincts important for psychic development, but so is defusion when contained within the analytic relationship. The analytic task is to restore the balance between constructive and pathological self-destructiveness. Implications regarding controversies in psychosomatic theory are briefly considered.

Gut instincts in neuroimmunity from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries.

In the past two decades, work on the microbiota-gut-brain axis has led to a renewed appreciation for the interconnectedness between body systems in both clinical and scientific circles. In the USA alone, millions of adults are burdened with non-communicable chronic diseases whose putative etiologies were previously thought to be restricted to either the gut or brain, such as inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, and autism spectrum disorder. However, the recent explosion of research into the impacts of the gut microbiome on diverse aspects of human health has revealed the potentially critical importance of reciprocal interactions between the gut microbiota, the immune system, and the brain in diverse diseases and disorders. In this review, we revisit the history of gut-brain interactions in science and medicine, which dates back to at least the eighteenth century, and outline how concepts in this field have shifted and evolved across eras. Next, we highlight the modern resurgence of gut-brain axis research, focusing on neuro-immune-microbiota interactions and recent progress towards a mechanistic understanding of the diverse impacts of the microbiome on human health. Finally, we offer a forward-looking perspective on the future of microbiota-gut-brain research, which may eventually reveal new paths towards the treatment of diverse diseases influenced by the complex connections between the microbiota and the brain.

The unwelcome child and a lack of acceptance of new ideas.

Ferenczi's idea of the unwelcome child and his death instinct is used as a background for discussing the treatment of adult patients who do not expect to be received and understood and who turn their aggression back upon themselves, destroying their will to live. When these patients enter analysis, they are very difficult to reach because they have internalized an obstructive object (Bion, 1958). Further, I have linked the unwelcoming of a child to the hatred of the new idea. The paper highlights the deadening defenses that arise in response to awareness of premature separateness between mother and baby, inevitably experienced by an unwelcome child. Coming alive involves suffering the pain of the original loss. To avoid this pain, patients reject anything new, and become stuck in monotonous, seemingly lifeless, patterns where new ideas and new ways of being threaten the static order. This includes the threat that relationship with the analyst brings.

The Unwelcome Child as a Dynamic Construct of the Terrorist Mind.

Psychoanalytic discourse on the dynamics of the terrorist mindset has been challenged by the absence of clinical work with terrorists in the literature. This paper proposes Ferenczi's concept of the unwelcome child as a dynamic construct of the terrorist mind. Unwelcome children have weak life instincts and correspondingly high death instincts. Clinical material from the analysis of an unwelcome child is presented which suggests that a sense of anomie and alienation from social ties may lead to a fundamentalist mind set which may potentially lead to a search for meaning in terrorist acts. The struggle between life and death instincts is demonstrated in the clinical material, with life instinct tipping the scales in this instance. Self-preservative survival instinct is proposed as the theoretical construct for life instinct in contrast to Freud's libido theory. The unwelcome child represents an object relations theory of the death instinct. Unwelcome children are likely a widespread phenomenon with significant social consequences.

Neural Control of Action Selection Among Innate Behaviors.

Nervous systems must not only generate specific adaptive behaviors, such as reproduction, aggression, feeding, and sleep, but also select a single behavior for execution at any given time, depending on both internal states and external environmental conditions. Despite their tremendous biological importance, the neural mechanisms of action selection remain poorly understood. In the past decade, studies in the model animal Drosophila melanogaster have demonstrated valuable neural mechanisms underlying action selection of innate behaviors. In this review, we summarize circuit mechanisms with a particular focus on a small number of sexually dimorphic neurons in controlling action selection among sex, fight, feeding, and sleep behaviors in both sexes of flies. We also discuss potentially conserved circuit configurations and neuromodulation of action selection in both the fly and mouse models, aiming to provide insights into action selection and the sexually dimorphic prioritization of innate behaviors.

Against Our Instincts: Decriminalization of Buprenorphine.

The rate of overdose deaths has increased dramatically over the past 2 decades. Recently, efforts have been made to expand access to medications for opioid use disorder, such as buprenorphine, by removing X-waiver training requirements. However, relieving such barriers has also raised concern about increasing diversion rates for buprenorphine use, defined as the use of buprenorphine for some purpose or by someone other than it was originally intended. Historically, diversion has been addressed through the criminalization of buprenorphine possession without a prescription. We argue that while buprenorphine diversion is not to be condoned, the benefits of such actions greatly outweigh the harms. Thus, criminalization of diverted buprenorphine represents a dangerous and wasteful response that threatens the progress made through expanded access to this lifesaving medication.

Hippocampal-hypothalamic circuit controls context-dependent innate defensive responses.

Preys use their memory - where they sensed a predatory threat and whether a safe shelter is nearby - to dynamically control their survival instinct to avoid harm and reach safety. However, it remains unknown which brain regions are involved, and how such top-down control of innate behavior is implemented at the circuit level. Here, using adult male mice, we show that the anterior hypothalamic nucleus (AHN) is best positioned to control this task as an exclusive target of the hippocampus (HPC) within the medial hypothalamic defense system. Selective optogenetic stimulation and inhibition of hippocampal inputs to the AHN revealed that the HPC→AHN pathway not only mediates the contextual memory of predator threats but also controls the goal-directed escape by transmitting information about the surrounding environment. These results reveal a new mechanism for experience-dependent, top-down control of innate defensive behaviors.

Parasitoid wasp venom manipulates host innate behavior via subtype-specific dopamine receptor activation.

The subjugation strategy employed by the jewel wasp is unique in that it manipulates the behavior of its host, the American cockroach, rather than inducing outright paralysis. Upon envenomation directly into the central complex (CX), a command center in the brain for motor behavior, the stung cockroach initially engages in intense grooming behavior, then falls into a lethargic sleep-like state referred to as hypokinesia. Behavioral changes evoked by the sting are due at least in part to the presence of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the venom. In insects, dopamine receptors are classified as two families, the D1-like and the D2-like receptors. However, specific roles played by dopamine receptor subtypes in venom-induced behavioral manipulation by the jewel wasp remain largely unknown. In the present study, we used a pharmacological approach to investigate roles of D1-like and D2-like receptors in behaviors exhibited by stung cockroaches, focusing on grooming. Specifically, we assessed behavioral outcomes of focal CX injections of dopamine receptor agonists and antagonists. Both specific and non-specific compounds were used. Our results strongly implicate D1-like dopamine receptors in venom-induced grooming. Regarding induction of hypokinesia, our findings demonstrate that dopamine signaling is necessary for induction of long-lasting hypokinesia caused by brain envenomation.

Neural mechanisms of persistent aggression.

While aggression is often conceptualized as a highly stereotyped, innate behavior, individuals within a species exhibit a surprising amount of variability in the frequency, intensity, and targets of their aggression. While differences in genetics are a source of some of this variation across individuals (estimates place the heritability of behavior at around 25-30%), a critical driver of variability is previous life experience. A wide variety of social experiences, including sexual, parental, and housing experiences can facilitate "persistent" aggressive states, suggesting that these experiences engage a common set of synaptic and molecular mechanisms that act on dedicated neural circuits for aggression. It has long been known that sex steroid hormones are powerful modulators of behavior, and also, that levels of these hormones are themselves modulated by experience. Several recent studies have started to unravel how experience-dependent hormonal changes during adulthood can create a cascade of molecular, synaptic, and circuit changes that enable behavioral persistence through circuit level remodeling. Here, we propose that sex steroid hormones facilitate persistent aggressive states by changing the relationship between neural activity and an aggression "threshold".