Psychological studies have established that the central nervous system cannot sustain vigilance for an extended period of time. The consequent vigilance decrement implies a gradual reduction in the ability to process information effectively. This may result in a reduced ability to detect hidden predators, locate cryptic food items or make successful behavioural decisions. A model incorporating ...

Wild animals increase vigilance at the expense of feeding time in response to predation risk or threats from conspecifics. Increased vigilance may therefore indicate increased fear. We tested dairy cattle to determine whether time spent vigilant changed in response to the novelty of their location, the presence of a dog or the presence of an aversive, gentle or unfamiliar handler. We conducted ...

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.08.012 0003-3472/© 2014 The Association for the Study of A For many animals, a key benefit of group living is lowered predation risk. With increasing group size, individuals commonly reduce vigilance. This group size effect can arise from both dilution of risk and increased collective detection. To determine which was more important, we compared vigilanc...

BACKGROUND Reports suggest that vigilance or sustained attention increases sympathetic activity. A persistent increase in sympathetic activity can lead to an increase in blood pressure. Alternate-nostril yoga breathing has been shown to be useful to (i) improve attention and (ii) decrease the systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Earlier studies did not report simultaneous recordings of the bl...