title: Food wrenching and dodging: use of action patterns for the analysis of sensorimotor and social behavior in the rat.
abstract: Developments of a procedure to study two movements, food wrenching (stealing food from a conspecific) and dodging (escaping with food from a conspecific), used in the competition for food by rats is described. These include, (A) procedures for adaptation, (B) procedures for filming and scoring, and (C) procedures for measuring dimensions of movements. The character of the movements have features of action patterns in the sense that the term is used by ethologists. It is suggested that they can be used to study the neural basis of complex sequencing of behavior as well as to study the neural basis of sensorimotor behavior and sensorimotor asymmetries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Alta., Canada.
authors.forename: I Q
authors.initials: IQ
authors.lastname: Whishaw
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D004298:Dopamine / Q000172:deficiency; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D009799:Ocular Physiological Phenomena; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012677:Sensation; D012683:Sensory Deprivation; D013477:Superior Colliculi / Q000502:physiology; D014738:Vibrissae / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D004298:Dopamine