Concordia University
Ph.D. candidate
Supervisor: Robert Weladji
Start: 2024-01-17
End: 2027-02-01
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Project

Social complexity and altruistic behaviors in Rattus Norvegicus living in semi-natural environment.
Here, we propose to unravel the mutual influence of the social group's complexity (i.e., its structure and composition) and altruism, as well as their temporal dynamic in wild-type Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) living in semi-natural environment. To this end, colonies of female rats were exposed to different paradigms of food donation and video-taped for months. The analyze of these videos will allow us to characterize their social structure and to identify some associated interactions. Then, we will assess the relative influence of the group social structure (i.e., dominancy and social bond), kinship, reciprocity and social reinforcement on communication of need and food donation, to evaluate the evolved decision rules for cooperation. Finally, we will investigate how food donations affect the group cohesion. Overall, this project would shed a new light on the way we cooperate, to ultimately improve the way we cooperate.

Keywords

prosocial, altruism, rats, computation, social, ethology

Publications

1- Subthalamic high-frequency deep brain stimulation reduces addiction-like alcohol use and the possible negative influence of a peer presence
Vignal, Lucie, Cassandre Vielle, Maya Williams, Nicolas Maurice, Mickael Degoulet, Christelle Baunez
2024 Psychopharmacology

2- Evidence for a vocal signature in the rat and its reinforcing effects: a key role for the subthalamic nucleus
Vielle, Cassandre, Christian Montanari, Yann Pelloux, Christelle Baunez
2021 Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

3- Peer presence and familiarity as key factors to reduce cocaine intake in both rats and humans: an effect mediated by the subthalamic nucleus
Giorla, Elodie, Sandra Nordmann, Cassandre Vielle, Yann Pelloux, Perrine Roux, Camelia Protopopescu, Christine Manrique, Karen Davranche, Christian Montanari, Lisa Giorgi, Antoine Vilotitch, Pascal Huguet, Patrizia Carrieri, Christelle Baunez
2022 Psychopharmacology

4- Repeated cocaine exposure prior to fear conditioning induces persistency of PTSD-like symptoms and enhancement of hippocampal and amygdala cell density in male rats
Lguensat, Asmae, Christian Montanari, Cassandre Vielle, Mohamed Bennis, Saadia Ba-M’hamed, Christelle Baunez, René Garcia
2021 Brain Structure and Function