Social platform services have transformed the lifestyles of individuals and the entire information and communication technology (ICT) ecosystem. The growth of the social networking market and the evolution of social networking sites (SNSs) have promoted a new wave of social network applications such as social network games (SNGs). SNGs are online or mobile games played through social networking...

Previous studies have shown that social withdrawal in the phencyclidine (PCP) rat model of schizophrenia results from deficient endocannabinoid-induced activation of CB1 receptors. To understand the underlying cognitive mechanisms of the social deficit in PCP-treated rats, we examined the impact of pharmacological manipulation of the endocannabinoid system on sociability (i.e. social approach) ...

The balance of cation-chloride co-transporters, particularly KCC2 and NKCC1, is critical for GABAergic inhibitory signaling. However, KCC2/NKCC1 balance is disrupted in many neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, correlations between chronic stress, KCC2 and NKCC1 in the hippocampus remain poorly understood. Despite the fact that emotional disorders in humans are far more prevalent in women, the...

Theories and empirical studies of adolescent sexual behavior have identified the contributions of personal attributes and social experiences; however, it is rare that models have clarified developmental pathways to adolescent sexual behavior that include (1) factors assessed prior to and early in adolescence and (2) dyadic experiences in adolescence that provide the opportunity for sexual behav...

Despite common stereotypes about those who use different types of online dating, psychological research on online dating agency users’ characteristics is actually very limited, and no scientific study has yet examined the individual characteristics of TinderTM users. The current exploratory study aimed to investigate why individuals use these services, and how they differ in terms of sociabilit...

Mice are a nocturnal species, whose social behaviors occur primarily during the dark phase of the circadian cycle. However, laboratory rodents are frequently tested during their light phase, for practical reasons. We investigated the question of whether light phase testing presents a methodological pitfall for investigating mouse social approach behaviors. Three lines of mice were systematicall...

The role of interspecific social interactions during species invasions may be more decisive than previously thought. Research has revealed that invasive fish improve their foraging success by shoaling with native Mexican species, and potentially increase the chances of invasion success. However, do native individuals tend to associate with invaders as well? We tested the hypothesis that the two...

Kristina Lerman USC Information Science Institute Marina del Rey, CA 90292 [email protected] Megha Arora IIIT-Delhi New Delhi, India 110020 [email protected] Luciano Gallegos USC Information Science Institute Marina del Rey, CA 90292 [email protected] Ponnurangam Kumaraguru IIIT-Delhi New Delhi, India 110020 [email protected] David Garcia ETH Zurich 8092 Zurich, Switzerland [email protected]

The social connections people form online affect the quality of information they receive and their online experience. Although a host of socioeconomic and cognitive factors were implicated in the formation of offline social ties, few of them have been empirically validated, particularly in an online setting. In this study, we analyze a large corpus of georeferenced messages, or tweets, posted b...

Eco-HAB is an open source, RFID-based system for automated measurement and analysis of social preference and in-cohort sociability in mice. The system closely follows murine ethology. It requires no contact between a human experimenter and tested animals, overcoming the confounding factors that lead to irreproducible assessment of murine social behavior between laboratories. In Eco-HAB, group-h...