Behavioral Research Blog

Recent scientific research provides more and more understanding of behavioral challenges children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) face.

Quality of parent-child interaction is one of the major predictors of emotional and social development of children, which makes parent-child interaction an important focus of child development research.

In general, researchers choose the methods and techniques that best suit their research objectives. That’s no different when researching doctor-patient communication or any other clinical interview setting.

Patterns in behavior are everywhere around us. Think about the sequence of behavior when you do the laundry, get ready in the morning, play a game of soccer, or drive your car to work.

Researchers increasingly study what goes on behind closed doors. Thirty mock-jury deliberations were filmed and behaviors were then coded using The Observer software.

Structured observations are one of the many ways to gather data. Observing behavior rather than asking questions about it can provide you with a multitude of valuable information.

I recently wrote about other translations from rodent studies to zebrafish, such as the investigation of learning and memory and social behavior. Now it’s time to talk about anxiety and exploration.

Autism (ASD) continues to be an important topic in scientific research. Although finding the actual cause of ASD is still years away, there have been several studies that point to a strong genetic component.

Will there ever be a cure for alcoholism? Well, some laboratory studies show that certain drugs might stop the cravings. But they might also cause serious side-effects such as aggressive behavior.

When finding the right dog for yourself, you probably won’t choose an aggressive one, will you? You don’t want it to attack your friends, kids, or other dogs. You could try using a temperament test, but how reliable are they?

Did you know that tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) rub their fur vigorously with substances such as leaves, fruit, or insects? Such substances are often insecticidal, antiseptic, or anti-inflammatory.

In Rhesus monkeys the optimal sexual strategy is different for Alpha males, other males and females. Alpha males want females to mate exclusively with them, whereas other males and females benefit from promiscuity.

Social behavior is a well-known topic of neuroscience research, since it is so often affected in psychiatric disorders. Think of obvious examples such as schizophrenia and autism.

I have written two blog posts about static gait parameters. Now it’s time to talk about all four paws, and the time based relationships between them. If you ask me, we’ve been saving the best blog post for last!

A footprint, that is. With CatWalk XT, you can extract a lot of information from just one footprint. In this post, I am taking it a step further by talking about the relationship between prints.

So what can one footprint tell you? Well, it could tell you a lot. Simply putting the paw in ink and studying the print left behind is one way to go about it, but there are far more sophisticated ways of footprint analysis.