scholarly journals Immediate early gene activation throughout the brain is associated with dynamic changes in social context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cait M. Williamson ◽  
Inbal S. Klein ◽  
Won Lee ◽  
James P. Curley
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Dynamic Change ◽  
Gene Activation ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Early Gene ◽  
Alpha Male ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rapid Ascent ◽  
Behavior Network ◽  
The Brain

ABSTRACTSocial competence is dependent on successful processing of social context information. The social opportunity paradigm is a methodology in which dynamic shifts in social context are induced through removal of the alpha male in a dominance hierarchy, leading to rapid ascent in the hierarchy of the beta male and of other subordinate males in the social group. In the current study, we use the social opportunity paradigm to determine what brain regions respond to this dynamic change in social context, allowing an individual to recognize the absence of the alpha male and subsequently perform status-appropriate social behaviors. Replicating our previous work, we show that following removal of the alpha male, beta males rapidly ascend the social hierarchy and attain dominant status by increasing aggression towards more subordinate individuals. Analysis of patterns of Fos immunoreactivity throughout the brain indicates that in individuals undergoing social ascent, there is increased activity in regions of the social behavior network, as well as the infralimbic and prelimbic regions of the prefrontal cortex and areas of the hippocampus. Our findings demonstrate that male mice are able to respond to changes in social context and provide insight into the how the brain processes these complex behavioral changes.

scholarly journals Immediate early gene activation throughout the brain is associated with dynamic changes in social context

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cait M. Williamson ◽  
Inbal S. Klein ◽  
Won Lee ◽  
James P. Curley
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Gene Activation ◽  
Immediate Early Gene ◽  
Early Gene ◽  
Immediate Early ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals Differential neural activity patterns mediate learning across contexts in a social cichlid fish

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Rodriguez-Santiago ◽  
Alex L Jordan ◽  
Hans A Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Basolateral Amygdala ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Early Gene ◽  
The Social

Learning and decision-making are greatly influenced by the social context surrounding individuals. When navigating a complex social world, individuals must quickly ascertain where to gain important resources and which group members are useful sources of such information. Such dynamic behavioral processes require neural mechanisms that are flexible across contexts. Here we examined how the social context influences the learning response during a visual cue discrimination task and the neural activity patterns that underlie acquisition of this novel information. Using the cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni, we show that learning of the task is faster in social groups than in a non-social context. We quantified the expression of Fos, an immediate-early gene, across candidate brain regions known to play a role in social behavior and learning, such as the putative teleost homologues of the mammalian hippocampus, basolateral amygdala, and medial amygdala/BNST complex. We found that neural activity patterns differ between social and non-social contexts. Our results suggest that while the same brain regions may be involved in the learning of a discrimination task independent of social context, activity in each region encodes specific aspects of the task based on context.

scholarly journals Distress Regulates Different Pathways in the Brain of Common Carp: A Preliminary Study

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 585
Author(s):  
Alexander Burren ◽  
Constanze Pietsch
Keyword(s):  
Gene Regulation ◽  
Common Carp ◽  
Binding Protein ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Point Estimation ◽  
Early Gene ◽  
Important Species ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
The Brain

In this study, a stress trial was conducted with common carp, one of the most important species in aquaculture worldwide, to identify relevant gene regulation pathways in different areas of the brain. Acute distress due to exposure to air significantly activated the expression of the immediate early gene c-fos in the telencephalon. In addition, evidence for regulation of the two corticotropin-releasing factor (crf) genes in relation to their binding protein (corticotropin-releasing hormone-binding protein, crh-bp) is presented in this preliminary study. Inferences on the effects of due to exposure to air were obtained by using point estimation, which allows the prediction of a single value. This constitutes the best description to date of the previously generally unknown effects of stress in different brain regions in carp. Furthermore, principal component analyses were performed to reveal possible regulation patterns in the different regions of the fish brain. In conclusion, these preliminary studies on gene regulation in the carp brain that has been influenced by exposure to a stressor reveal that a number of genes may be successfully used as markers for exposure to unfavourable conditions.

Sickness and the social brain: How the immune system regulates behavior across species

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Devlin ◽  
Caroline J. Smith ◽  
Staci D. Bilbo
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Behavior Changes ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Immune Mediators ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sickness Behaviors ◽  
The Brain

Many instances of sickness critically involve the immune system. The immune system talks to the brain in a bi-directional loop. This discourse affords the immune system immense control, such that it can influence behavior and optimize recovery from illness. These behavioral responses to infection are called sickness behaviors and can manifest in many ways, including changes in mood, motivation, or energy. Fascinatingly, most of these changes are conserved across species, and most organisms demonstrate some form of sickness behaviors. One of the most interesting sickness behaviors, and not immediately obvious, is altered sociability. Here, we discuss how the immune system impacts social behavior, by examining the brain regions and immune mediators involved in this process. We first outline how social behavior changes in response to infection in various species. Next, we explore which brain regions control social behavior and their evolutionary origins. Finally, we describe which immune mediators establish the link between illness and social behavior, in the context of both normal development and infection. Overall, we hope to make clear the striking similarities between the mechanisms that facilitate changes in sociability in derived and ancestral vertebrate, as well as invertebrate, species.

Worlds in Collision: Owen and Huxley on the Brain

1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.U.M. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Scientific Advance ◽  
Societal Factors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Philosophical Intuition ◽  
Biological World ◽  
Richard Owen ◽  
The Brain

The ArgumentThis paper makes use of the 1860 clash between T. H. Huxley and Richard Owen to examine the role of social context in scientific advance in the biological sciences. It shows how the social context of nineteenth-century England first favored the Coleridge-Owenite interpretation of the biological world and then, at mid-century and subsequently, allowed the Darwin-Huxley interpretation to win through. It emphasizes the complexity of the clash. Professional, personal, and generational agendas as well as scientific theory and fundamental philosophical intuition were at stake. The history, ultimately, provides a useful instance of Schutz ‘s and Scheler ‘s concept of societal factors controlling and selecting between flows of idealfactoren. Although Huxley is conventionally regarded as the victor I conclude by suggesting that the issue is not yet closed and that profound philosophical issues remain unresolved.

scholarly journals Assessing visual requirements for social context-dependent activation of the songbird song system

2008 ◽  
Vol 276 (1655) ◽  
pp. 279-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erina Hara ◽  
Lubica Kubikova ◽  
Neal A Hessler ◽  
Erich D Jarvis
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Visual Input ◽  
Related Area ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Context Dependent ◽  
The Brain

Social context has been shown to have a profound influence on brain activation in a wide range of vertebrate species. Best studied in songbirds, when males sing undirected song, the level of neural activity and expression of immediate early genes (IEGs) in several song nuclei is dramatically higher or lower than when they sing directed song to other birds, particularly females. This differential social context-dependent activation is independent of auditory input and is not simply dependent on the motor act of singing. These findings suggested that the critical sensory modality driving social context-dependent differences in the brain could be visual cues. Here, we tested this hypothesis by examining IEG activation in song nuclei in hemispheres to which visual input was normal or blocked. We found that covering one eye blocked visually induced IEG expression throughout both contralateral visual pathways of the brain, and reduced activation of the contralateral ventral tegmental area, a non-visual midbrain motivation-related area affected by social context. However, blocking visual input had no effect on the social context-dependent activation of the contralateral song nuclei during female-directed singing. Our findings suggest that individual sensory modalities are not direct driving forces for the social context differences in song nuclei during singing. Rather, these social context differences in brain activation appear to depend more on the general sense that another individual is present.

scholarly journals Familiarity and Audience Effects on Giving: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 1577-1589
Author(s):  
Suzanne van de Groep ◽  
Kiki Zanolie ◽  
Eveline A. Crone
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Audience Effects ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fairness Concerns ◽  
The Right

Giving is often characterized by the conflicting decision to give up something of value to benefit others. Recent evidence indicated that giving is highly context-dependent. To unravel the neural correlates of social context, in this study, young adults ( n = 32) performed a novel giving fMRI paradigm, in which they divided coins between self and known (friends) or unknown (unfamiliar) others. A second manipulation included presence of others; giving decisions were made with an audience or anonymously. Results showed that participants gave more coins to a friend than to an unfamiliar other and generally gave more in the presence of an audience. On a neural level, medial prefrontal cortex and the right insula were most active for relatively generous decisions. These findings possibly reflect that aversion of norm deviation or fairness concerns drive differences in the frequency of giving. Next, activation in separate subregions of the TPJ-IPL (i.e., a region that comprises the TPJ and inferior parietal lobule) was found for target and audience contexts. Overall, our findings suggest that donation size and social contextual information are processed in separable brain regions and that TPJ-IPL plays an important role in balancing self- and other-oriented motives related to the social context.

scholarly journals Serotonergic activation during courtship and aggression in the brown anole,Anolis sagrei

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob T. Hartline ◽  
Alexandra N. Smith ◽  
David Kabelik
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Early Gene ◽  
Anolis Sagrei ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
The Social ◽  
Copulatory Courtship ◽  
Brown Anole ◽  
Behavior Network ◽  
Reticular Nuclei

The role of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) in social behavior regulation is not fully understood. While 5-HT release in nuclei of the social behavior network has generally been associated with inhibition of aggressive behavior across multiple classes of vertebrates, less is known about its effects on sexual, especially non-copulatory courtship display behaviors. Furthermore, most research has examined effects at 5-HT release sites, while studies examining the behavioral relevance of source cell populations have generated contradictory findings. This study utilized immunohistochemistry to examine the colocalization of 5-HT with Fos, an immediate early gene product and marker of neural activity, in the raphe and superior reticular nuclei of male brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) exposed to either aggression, courtship, or control social interactions. Supporting previous research, copulation was associated with a decrease in 5-HT activity, while a novel link between 5-HT activity and latency to non-copulatory courtship was also found. Within the aggression group, intensity and frequency of behavior were both associated with decreased 5-HT activity. An effect of social context was also seen, with anoles exposed to either courtship or aggression encounters showing decreased 5-HT activity in certain raphe and superior reticular nuclei populations compared to controls. Interestingly, context effects and behavioral effects were seen at separate brain nuclei, suggesting the presence of separate systems with distinct functional roles.

scholarly journals Cerebellar modulation of the reward circuitry and social behavior

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 363 (6424) ◽  
pp. eaav0581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilaria Carta ◽  
Christopher H. Chen ◽  
Amanda L. Schott ◽  
Schnaude Dorizan ◽  
Kamran Khodakhah
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Ventral Tegmental Area ◽  
Social Preference ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Reward Circuitry ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Brain

The cerebellum has been implicated in a number of nonmotor mental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and addiction. However, its contribution to these disorders is not well understood. In mice, we found that the cerebellum sends direct excitatory projections to the ventral tegmental area (VTA), one of the brain regions that processes and encodes reward. Optogenetic activation of the cerebello-VTA projections was rewarding and, in a three-chamber social task, these projections were more active when the animal explored the social chamber. Intriguingly, activity in the cerebello-VTA pathway was required for the mice to show social preference in this task. Our data delineate a major, previously unappreciated role for the cerebellum in controlling the reward circuitry and social behavior.

Memory for friends or foes: The social context of past encounters with faces modulates their subsequent neural traces in the brain

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 384-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Vrtička ◽  
Frédéric Andersson ◽  
David Sander ◽  
Patrik Vuilleumier
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Brain
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document