Asking questions is common in conversations, and while asking questions, we need to listen carefully to what others say and consider the perspective our questions adopt. However, difficulties persist ...in verifying the effect of asking questions on older adults' cognitive function due to the lack of a standardized system for conducting experiments at participants' homes.
This study examined the intervention effect of cognitive training moderated by robots on healthy older adults. A focus on the feasibility of the intervention at participants' homes was also maintained. Feasibility was evaluated by considering both the dropout rate during the intervention and the number of questions posed to each participant during the experiment.
We conducted a randomized controlled trial with 81 adults older than 65 years. Participants were recruited through postal invitations and then randomized into 2 groups. The intervention group (n=40) received sessions where participants listened to photo-integrated stories and posed questions to the robots. The control group (n=41) received sessions where participants listened to photo-integrated stories and only thanked the robots for confirming participation. The participants participated in 12 dialogue sessions for 2-3 weeks. Scores of global cognitive functioning tests, recall tests, and verbal fluency tasks measured before and after the intervention were compared between the 2 groups.
There was no significant intervention effect on the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status-Japanese scores, recall tests, and verbal fluency tasks. Additionally, our study successfully concluded with no participant dropouts at follow-up, confirming the feasibility of our approach.
There was no statistically significant evidence indicating intervention benefits for cognitive functioning. Although the feasibility of home-based interventions was demonstrated, we identified areas for improvement in the future, such as setting up more efficient session themes. Further research is required to identify the effectiveness of an improved cognitive intervention involving the act of asking questions.
Social interaction might prevent or delay dementia, but little is known about the specific effects of various social activity interventions on cognition. This study conducted a single-site randomized ...controlled trial (RCT) of Photo-Integrated Conversation Moderated by Robots (PICMOR), a group conversation intervention program for resilience against cognitive decline and dementia. In the RCT, PICMOR was compared to an unstructured group conversation condition. Sixty-five community-living older adults participated in this study. The intervention was provided once a week for 12 weeks. Primary outcome measures were the cognitive functions; process outcome measures included the linguistic characteristics of speech to estimate interaction quality. Baseline and post-intervention data were collected. PICMOR contains two key features: 1) photos taken by the participants are displayed and discussed sequentially; and 2) a robotic moderator manages turn-taking to make sure that participants are allocated the same amount of time. Among the primary outcome measures, one of the subcategories of cognitive functions, verbal fluency significantly improved in the intervention group. Among the process outcome measures, a part of the subcategories of linguistic characteristics of speech, the amount of speech and richness of words, proportion of providing topics, questions, and answers in total utterances were larger for the intervention group. This study demonstrated for the first time the positive effects of a robotic social activity intervention on cognitive function in healthy older adults via RCT. The group conversation generated by PICMOR may improve participants' verbal fluency since participants have more opportunity to provide their own topics, asking and answering questions which results in exploring larger vocabularies. PICMOR is available and accessible to community-living older adults.
UMIN Clinical Trials Registry, identifier UMIN000036667.
The success of social insects is often attributed to the specialized morphologies and behaviours of workers. One of the most elaborate specializations in ant species is the workers’ plugging ...behaviour, in which their uniquely shaped heads are used for nest defence. These species generally nest in tree cavities. Without morphologically specialized workers (major workers) plugging the nest entrance, nests are easily attacked and replaced by conspecific and heterospecific cavity‐dwelling ants and other predators. Therefore, major workers are expected to defend the nest at all times. However, empirical evidence on the social time investment for nest defence is still lacking. Here, we investigated how major workers of Colobopsis nipponicus achieve nest defence (plugging behaviour) in terms of their work schedule. Our results showed that the nests had more major workers than entrances. The observation of artificial plastic nests over 6 days in the laboratory revealed that the nest entrance was guarded almost continuously by multiple major workers. The entrance‐guarding schedule was not equally divided among major workers, and there were no clear shift patterns in the timing of changeovers. We highlight the importance of investigating the time investment of workers to fully understand the defence strategies of this morphologically specialized caste.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
In group-living animals, social interactions influence various traits including circadian activity. Maternal care, in particular, can have a strong effect on the circadian activity of parents or ...nurses across taxa. In social insects, nest-mates are known to have diverse activity rhythms; however, what kind of social environment is crucial in shaping an individual's rhythm is largely unknown. Here, we show that the focal brood types being taken care of (i.e. egg, larva and pupa) have significant effects on individual activity/rest rhythm, using the monomorphic ant Diacamma (putative species indicum). When isolated from a colony, nurses exhibited a clear circadian rhythm. However, when paired with eggs or larvae, they exhibited around-the-clock activity with no apparent rhythm. In contrast, a clear activity rhythm emerged when nurses were paired with a pupa, requiring little care. Such brood-type-specific changes in circadian activity are considered to arise from the difference in caretaking demands. Our finding may contribute to the understanding of the organization of a colony in the context of behavioural variability under different microenvironments.
Abstract
Circadian rhythms, their free-running periods and the power of the rhythms are often used as indicators of biological clocks, and there is evidence that the free-running periods of circadian ...rhythms are not affected by environmental factors, such as temperature. However, there are few studies of environmental effects on the power of the rhythms, and it is not clear whether temperature compensation is universal. Additionally, genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity in biological clocks are important for understanding the evolution of biological rhythms, but genetic and plastic effects are rarely investigated. Here, we used 18 isofemale lines (genotypes) of Gnatocerus cornutus to assess rhythms of locomotor activity, while also testing for temperature effects. We found that total activity and the power of the circadian rhythm were affected by interactions between sex and genotype or between sex, genotype and temperature. The males tended to be more active and showed greater increases in activity, but this effect varied across both genotypes and temperatures. The period of activity varied only by genotype and was thus independent of temperature. The complicated genotype–sex–environment interactions we recorded stress the importance of investigating circadian activity in more integrated ways.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Many parasitoid wasps exhibit ‘oviposition learning,’ whereby females associate host‐related cues with oviposition and use them in subsequent searches for hosts. This is affected by various factors ...that have yet to be fully elucidated. We examined the effects of host developmental stage on oviposition learning in parasitoid wasps that utilize both larval and pupal hosts using Heterospilus prosopidis Viereck (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), an ectoparasitoid of Bruchinae beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), as a model. First, we examined whether the induction of host species preference differs between oviposition on larval and pupal hosts. Oviposition choice experiments were performed for both larval and pupal hosts using two equally preferred host species – Callosobruchus chinensis (L.) and Callosobruchus maculatus (Fabricius) – and wasps that were conditioned by an oviposition experience on either of the two host species. We found an induction of host species preference in wasps conditioned with pupal hosts but not in wasps conditioned with larval hosts. Next, we examined whether the induced preference was host‐stage‐specific. Oviposition experiments with pupal‐host‐conditioned wasps and larval hosts as choice hosts indicated that learned cues were not used when searching for larval hosts. Similar results were obtained for larval‐host‐conditioned wasps. We compared oviposition behavior on larval and pupal hosts but found no behavioral differences that could contribute to the observed difference in host preference induction. Our results indicate that larval and pupal hosts have different effects on host preference following an oviposition experience in H. prosopidis, although the detailed mechanisms remain unclear. These findings are notable because in parasitoid wasps that utilize both larval and pupal hosts, host developmental stages have attracted little attention as factors affecting oviposition learning.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Ecologists frequently need to detect causalities among events from time series data. It can be difficult to detect causality from time series data created from complex, deterministic, nonlinear ...systems, which are universal. Convergent cross mapping is a novel method for detecting causality in such situations. This review explains the mechanism, how to use the method, and future issues with this method.
We present an efficient utilization of a machine learning (ML) method concentrating on the 'AI for social good' application. We develop a digital dementia biomarker for early-onset dementia forecast. ...The paper demonstrates encouraging preliminary results of EEG-wearable-based signal analysis and a subsequent classification adopting a signal complexity test of a multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MFDFA) in emotional faces working memory training and evaluation tasks. For the digital biomarker of dementia onset detection, we examine shallow- and deep-learning machine learning models. We report the best median accuracies in a range of 90% for random forest and fully connected neural network classifier models in both emotional faces learning and evaluation experimental tasks. In addition, the classifiers are trained in a ten-fold cross-validation regime to discriminate normal versus mild cognitive impairment (MCI) cognition stages using MFDFA patterns from four-channel EEG recordings. Thirty-five volunteer elderly subjects participate in the current study concentrating on simple wearable EEG-based objective dementia biomarker progression. The reported outcomes showcase an essential social benefit of artificial intelligence (AI) employment for early dementia prediction. Furthermore, we improve ML employment for the succeeding application in an uncomplicated and applied EEG-wearable examination.
A key challenge in movement ecology is to understand how animals move in nature. Previous studies have predicted that animals should perform a special class of random walks, called Lévy walk, to ...obtain more targets. However, some empirical studies did not support this hypothesis, and the relationship between search strategy and ecological factors is still unclear. We focused on ecological factors, such as predation risk, and analyzed whether Lévy walk may not be favored. It was remarkable that the ecological factors often altered an optimal search strategy from Lévy walk to Brownian walk, depending on the speed of the predator's movement, density of predators, etc. This occurred because higher target encounter rates simultaneously led searchers to higher predation risks. Our findings indicate that animals may not perform Lévy walks often, and we suggest that it is crucial to consider the ecological context for evaluating the search strategy performed by animals in the field.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We discuss the practical employment of a machine learning (ML) technique within AI for a social good application. We present an application for elderly adult dementia onset prognostication. First, ...the paper explains our encouraging preliminary study results of EEG responses analysis using a signal complexity measure of multiscale entropy (MSE) in reminiscent interior working memory evaluation tasks. Then, we compare shallow and deep learning machine learning models for a digital biomarker of dementia onset detection. The evaluated machine-learning models succeed in the most reliable median accuracies above 80% using random forest and fully connected neural network classifiers in automatic discrimination of normal cognition versus a mild cognitive impairment (MCI) task. The classifier input features consist of MSE patterns only derived from four dry EEG electrodes. Fifteen elderly subjects voluntarily participate in the reported study focusing on EEG-based objective dementia biomarker advancement. The results showcase the essential social advantages of artificial intelligence (AI) application for the dementia prognosis and advance ML for the subsequent use for simple objective EEG-based examination.Clinical relevance- This manuscript introduces an objective biomarker from EEG recorded by a wearable for a plausible replacement of a mild cognitive impairment (MCI) evaluation using usual biased paper and pencil examinations
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