Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2017-01-10T15:53:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 AronDeMirandaHenriquesAlves_TESE.pdf: 2139619 bytes, checksum: 54285e7e9d5391a21bf97d42a9b9afaa (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-01-12T10:50:00Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 AronDeMirandaHenriquesAlves_TESE.pdf: 2139619 bytes, checksum: 54285e7e9d5391a21bf97d42a9b9afaa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-12T10:50:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AronDeMirandaHenriquesAlves_TESE.pdf: 2139619 bytes, checksum: 54285e7e9d5391a21bf97d42a9b9afaa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-16 / Os objetivos desta tese foram os de investigar padr?es comportamentais e eletrofisiol?gicos associados ? resili?ncia e suscetibilidade ao estresse social induzido em camundongos. Para isso, utilizamos um protocolo de indu??o de estresse cr?nico cont?nuo a partir de derrotas sociais baseado no paradigma residente-intruso. Os resultados da tese s?o apresentados em dois estudos. No primeiro estudo, camundongos C57BL/6J submetidos a epis?dios repetidos de derrota social apresentaram motiva??o tardia para interagir com um camundongo desconhecido em sess?es prolongadas (10 min) do teste de intera??o social. Utilizando uma abordagem etol?gica associada ? an?lise computacional de v?deos foi poss?vel rastrear precisamente a posi??o dos camundongos durante a realiza??o de comportamentos de investiga??o social. Analisamos ainda a express?o detalhada de comportamentos defensivos, tais como investiga??o em postura estendida e fugas, ambos associados ao comportamento de investiga??o social. A partir dessas an?lises demonstramos que a realiza??o do comportamento de investiga??o social em postura estendida era significativamente maior para o grupo derrotado comparado ao grupo controle. Ainda, um subgrupo de camundongos derrotados apresentou investiga??o social em postura estendida de forma persistente e sem habitua??o. Utilizando uma medida da dist?ncia de investiga??o durante as investiga??es sociais calculamos um ?ndice de aproxima??o (IA) para cada animal e separamos um subgrupo apresentando fen?tipo relacionado ? ansiedade. A incid?ncia de fugas tamb?m foi maior no grupo derrotado em compara??o com os controles. A persist?ncia na ocorr?ncia desse comportamento foi observada em um subgrupo de camundongos submetidos ?s derrotas sociais. Calculamos ent?o um ?ndice de fugas (IF) que se correlacionou inversamente com a prefer?ncia por sacarose, sendo ?til para identificar animais aned?nicos. No segundo estudo, foram combinados an?lise etol?gica e registros eletrofisiol?gicos com tetrodos na ?rea tegmentar ventral de camundongos submetidos ? derrotas sociais. Utilizando crit?rios eletrofisiol?gicos e farmacol?gicos classificamos unidades na ?rea tegmentar ventral como supostos neur?nios dopamin?rgicos e n?o-dopamin?rgicos. Durante o comportamento de investiga??o social foi observado que a modula??o da taxa de disparo dessas subpopula??es neuronais distintas ocorreu de maneira oposta em animais suscet?veis e resilientes ao estresse social. Em suma, propomos que sess?es prolongadas associadas ? an?lise etol?gica detalhada durante os testes de intera??o social podem prover informa??o para classifica??o de camundongos em resilientes e suscept?veis ap?s repetidas derrotas sociais. Ainda, a express?o do fen?tipo suscet?vel parece estar associada ao comprometimento do sistema dopamin?rgico mesol?mbico na atribui??o de valor de incentivo ?s intera??es sociais normalmente associadas ao aumento da atividade neuronal mesol?mbica. / The aims of this thesis were to investigate behavioral and electrophysiological patterns associated to resilience and susceptibility to social stress in mice. For this, we used a chronic social defeat stress protocol based on the resident-intruder paradigm. The results are presented here in two studies. In the first study, C57BL/6J mice submitted to repeated social defeat episodes showed delayed motivation to interact with an unfamiliar conspecific in long duration (10 min) sessions of the social interaction test. By using an ethological approach combined with computational video analysis, it was possible to track precisely the mouse position during social investigation behavior performance. With that approach, it was analyzed the detailed expression of defensive behaviors, such as stretched attended postures and flights, both associated to social investigation behaviors. From these analyzes, it was demonstrated that social investigation behaviors based on stretched attend postures were significantly higher in defeated mice in comparison to controls. Still, a subpopulation of defeated mice showed persistently and non-habituating stretched attend postures during social investigation. By using a measure based on the investigation distance during social investigations, it was possible to compute an approach index (AI) to each animal and separate a subpopulation showing an anxiety-related phenotype. The flight incidence was also increased in defeated group as compared with controls. The persistent occurrence of this behavior was observed in a subpopulation of defeated mice. We calculated a flight index (FI) that inversely correlated with sucrose preference, showing to be useful to identify anhedonic animals. In the second study, we combined ethological approach and electrophysiological recordings in the ventral tegmental area of mice submitted to chronic social defeat stress. By using electrophysiological and pharmacological criteria, single-units recorded from the ventral tegmental area were classified as putative dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic neurons. During the social investigation behavior it was observed that firing rate modulations of distinct neuronal subpopulations occurred in opposite manner in social defeat susceptible and resilient mice. In summary, this work proposes that longer sessions of the social interaction test associated to ethological approach can provide information for the behavioral classifications of resilient and susceptible mice after social defeat stress. Furthermore, the expression of susceptible phenotype could be related to the midbrain dopaminergic system impairment in the incentive value assignment to social interactions normally associated with increased mesolimbic neuronal activity.

<p>  </p> <p>This study investigates consumers’ moral-decision making process when they become aware of brands’ controversial actions. Specifically, this study aims to understand the effects of consumers’ cognitive and affective responses on their moral judgments after learning about the controversy of brands conducting animal testing, which in turn impacts their brand switching intention. The current study also considers consumers’ approach-avoidance conflicts in the moral-decision making process in which consumers confront moral dilemmas. The particular brands’ controversial action of interest for this study is personal care brands’ conducting animal testing on their products and selling animal-tested products because many believe that animal testing is only vital for biomedical research purposes but not for pursuing beauty purposes. This study builds a conceptual model depicting the consumer moral decision-making process based on Rest's (1994) and Schwartz’s (2015) ethical decision-making (EDM) theory and Sirgy’s (1986) self-congruence theory. To test the model, highly valid responses were collected from 454 U.S. nationwide consumers through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The results indicated that: (1) consumers’ affective response (outward-focused emotion) and cognitive response (moral awareness) both provoked their moral incongruence and brand switching intention, (2) consumers’ cognitive response had a negative and significant impact on their moral disengagement, but moral disengagement had a marginal impact on brand switching intentions, (3) consumers’ affective response has a stronger impact on their moral judgment than cognitive, and their affective response can directly lead to brand switching intention, and lastly, (4) moral incongruence and moral disengagement mediated the effects of moral awareness and outward-focused emotion on brand switching intention. Finally, the research findings contribute to the consumer science literature in the area of consumers' moral decision-making process. For practical contributions, this study encourages companies to conduct practice that follows general consumers' moral beliefs and values to avoid losing their loyal customers. </p>