Power, E. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2025

Tick-box exercise: Choice architecture of online classified advertisement websites can improve reporting of CITES Certificate ownership

The ethical and sustainable trade of nature and natural products relies on the presence of and compliance with legislation. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has been the global standard for the past half century, but doubts exist about compliance with CITES because of the lucrative nature of illegal trade, and because of misunderstandings regarding the details of specific in-country regulations. For two commonly traded species requiring UK CITES Article 10 (A10) Certificates we collected data on the frequency of reporting of the correct paperwork. We did so on two UK websites that vary in their format: one contains both a free text field and a tick box to capture information on CITES Certificates, the other contains solely a free text field. For each species the tick box captured A10 Certificate ownership in 99% of advertisements, which was significantly higher than that reported in the free text field of the same website. Further, the presence of a tick box also encouraged higher reporting of A10 ownership in the free text field, with a significant difference between websites. These results suggest that the choice architecture of websites can have a significant impact on how effectively advertisers report ownership of the correct Certificates and information.

zoology↗

bioRxiv2024

Ultradian rhythms of CRHPVN neuron activity, behaviour and stress hormone secretion

The stress axis is always active, even in the absence of any threat. This manifests as hourly pulses of corticosteroid stress hormone secretion over the day. Corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (CRHPVN) control both the neuroendocrine stress axis as well as stress-associated behaviours. However, it is currently unclear how the resting activity of these neurons is coordinated with both spontaneous behaviour and ultradian pulses of corticosteroid secretion. To investigate this, we performed fiber photometry recordings of CRHPVN neuron activity in Crh-Ires-Cre mice and a newly generated line of Crh-Ires-Cre rats. In both mice and rats, CRHPVN neurons displayed an ultradian rhythm of activity with reoccurring upstates of activity approximately once per hour over the 24-hour day. Upstates in activity were coordinated with increases in animal activity/arousal. Chemogenetic activation of CRHPVN neurons was also sufficient to induce behavioural arousal. In rats, increases in CRH neural activity preceded some pulses of corticosteroid secretion but not others. Thus, while CRHPVN neurons display an ultradian rhythm of activity over the 24-hour day that is coordinated with behavioural arousal, the relationship between CRHPVN activity and pulses of corticosteroid secretion is not one-to-one. Significance StatementUltradian rhythms are present in many biological systems, however, the underlying neural mechanisms responsible for generating these rhythms is unclear. Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) neurons control corticosteroid levels in the body as well as arousal and behaviour. Here we show that CRH neurons exhibit a pronounced ultradian rhythm in neural activity over the 24-hour day. CRH neural activity was highly correlated with, and predictive of, behavioral arousal. However, CRH neural activity was not as well correlated with pulses of corticosteroid secretion. Together, these data revel the patterns of CRH neuron activity over the 24-hour day and their relationship with behaviour and stress hormone secretion.

neuroscience↗