Mice in a ?Big Brother? Setup Develop Social Structures

[wyverary]

The researchers found that it was possible to isolate and identify typical behaviors of individuals, pairs and groups. In fact just by sorting out behavioral patterns, the automated system was able to differentiate between the various genetic strains of the mice in the mixed groups, as well as predicting mating, with over 90% accuracy. These close observations revealed, among other social features, how one of the individuals became "king" of the group, attaining dominance over the others, both male and female.

In further experiments, the "house" inhabitants comprised one of two strains of mice, the first more "social" and the second "autistic" (exhibiting little social engagement and rigid behavior patterns). The system automatically identified the "autistic" mice by identifying their patterns of movement and public behavior.
In a paper that appears this week in Nature Communications, Kimchi and her team describe the emergence of the dominant leader and the development of a class system in a group of normal mice - just within a 24-hour period. Surprisingly, when they conducted a similar experiment with the autistic-like mice, either no leader emerged or, if one did, he was quickly overthrown.
The precise, automatic, semi-natural system the scientists have developed is enabling a deep, systematic study of the mechanisms for regulating social behavior in animal models; it may be especially useful for providing insight into the societal aspects of such disorders as schizophrenia and autism.

Mice in a

The article is a couple of months old, but I do not remember seeing it on here, so there ya go.

 

[King_Oni]

So... does this conclude that one with autism prefers to be treated as equal rather than have a set hierarchy?

 

[wyverary]

For mice, perhaps. I do not know if it concludes much of anything when it comes to humans. I just thought it interesting.

Though I wonder...could it possibly apply to some humans who are closer in behavior to "autistic" mice, in that we are inherent loners and not particularly reliant on anyone?

 

[King_Oni]

The problem I always have when I read about Mice and autism... and especially Mice and "social behaviour" is that I keep wondering if there's any scientist that actually wonders if "social protocol" for humans, is unneccesarily complex and something Mice can probably never engage in. Simply put; Mice do not have cellphones and/or the internet, which are turning into pillars of contemporary social protocol.

If we strip down communication in a scientific way to the basics of what communication is, then yes, there might be parallells between mice and humans. Just like there might be similarities to dolphins and eagles in terms of communication basics. If we add in the means, the communication tools, language, body language and a full list of factors that come in when we engage in social behaviour and communication, that's where there's a problem, since it's the tools to communicate, that are a problem for some to handle. It's like having a deaf dolphin for instance.