scholarly journals Development of social behaviour in young zebrafish.

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Dreosti ◽  
Gonçalo Lopes ◽  
Adam R. Kampff ◽  
Stephen W. Wilson

Adult zebrafish are robustly social animals whereas larva is not. We designed an assay to determine at what stage of development zebrafish begin to interact with and prefer other fish. One week old zebrafish do not show significant social preference whereas most 3 weeks old zebrafish strongly prefer to remain in a compartment where they can view conspecifics. However, for some individuals, the presence of conspecifics drives avoidance instead of attraction. Social preference is dependent on vision and requires viewing fish of a similar age/size. In addition, over the same 1-3 weeks period larval zebrafish increasingly tend to coordinate their movements, a simple form of social interaction. Finally, social preference and coupled interactions are differentially modified by an NMDAR antagonist and acute exposure to ethanol, both of which are known to alter social behavior in adult zebrafish.

Author(s):  
Mimi Pham ◽  
Jolia Raymond ◽  
Jonathan Hester ◽  
Evan Kyzar ◽  
Siddharth Gaikwad ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Landin ◽  
Daniel Hovey ◽  
Bo Xu ◽  
David Lagman ◽  
Anna Zettergren ◽  
...  

AbstractWith a strong tendency to socialise, the zebrafish is a useful model to study social behaviour, with implications for better treatments of social impairments, for instance in autism spectrum disorders. Although oxytocin is crucial for social behaviour in mammals, the importance of the fish orthologue – isotocin or zebrafish oxytocin (zOT) – for social behaviour in zebrafish is unclear. The aims of this study were firstly, to elucidate the receptor specificity of zOT and the related vasotocin or zebrafish vasopressin (zVP; the orthologue of mammalian vasopressin) and the nonpeptidergic oxytocin receptor antagonist L-368,899, and secondly to investigate if L-368,899 inhibits social preference in zebrafish. The potencies of ligands were evaluated for zOT/zVP family receptors in HEK293 cells. Adult and larval zebrafish were treated with L-368,899 or vehicle and subsequently assessed for social behaviour and anxiety (adults only). The antagonist L-368,899 specifically inhibited the two zOT receptors, but not the two zVP-1 receptors. The antagonist decreased social preference in adult and larval zebrafish. It did not affect anxiety in adults. These results indicate that endogenous zOT, and possibly zVP, is involved in social behaviour in zebrafish via either or both of the two zOT receptors, and show promise for future explorations of the anatomy and evolution of networks underlying social behaviour.


Author(s):  
Anna Brancato ◽  
Sara Lo Russo ◽  
Anna Sara Liberati ◽  
Cristiana Carbone ◽  
Silvia Zelli ◽  
...  

Social interaction is essential for life and is impaired in many psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, au-tism, depression and major anxiety disorder. Monoamine transmission plays a key role in social behavior and both genetic and epigenetic modifications of dopamine and noradrenaline neurotransmission-related genes can affect the levels of social interaction. Since heterozygous individuals for a specific genetic trait possess only one mutant allele of that trait, in order to better evaluate the role of the interaction between genetics and epigenetics in unmasking latent genetically-determined predispositions, our interest has focused on studying the interplay between genetics and epigenetics influences on social behavior in male rats obtained by two different breeding schemes: a first group by breeding of knock-out (KO) male rats with wild-type (WT) female dams (homogeneous heterozygous offspring, termed MAT-HET), and a second group of heterozygous DAT male offspring by breeding of KO male and DAT-heterozygous female subjects (to obtain comparable control pups, termed MIX-HET). Their social behavior was then assessed by partner preference, social preference and elicited preference tests. In the first test MIX-HET and MAT-HET male mice had choice between two WT females one in estrous and the other not in estrous. In the second test they met either a MIX-HET or a WT male rodent. Also, the expression of the noradrenaline transporter (NET) was assessed in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and hypothalamus of MAT, MIX and WTs by immunofluorescence in order to estimate its involvement in the expression of social behavior. Our results show that MIX-HET focal rodents tend to have an asocial behavior when in contact with a female in estrous, and their behavior is similar to when the stimulus is a MIX-HET male. MAT-HET male rodents, instead, tend to be very attracted by the female in estrous, but they ignore the MIX-HET stimulus. MIX-HET progeny showed a lower expression of noradrenaline transporter in both hypothalamus and hippocampus with respect to MAT-HET rats, whereas MAT-HET rats displayed increased noradrenaline transporter immunofluorescence in the hypothalamus and in the hippocampus with respect to WT rats, while no difference was observed in the prefrontal cortex. Therefore we can hypothesize that the differences observed between the two heterozygous groups may be attributable to an epigenetic factor: the different maternal care received. These data can open new perspectives towards increased the preclinical knowledge about autism and bipolar disorder.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Lichtman ◽  
Eyal Bergmann ◽  
Alexandra Kavushansky ◽  
Nadav Cohen ◽  
Nina S. Levy ◽  
...  

AbstractIQSEC2 is an X-linked gene that is associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability, and epilepsy. IQSEC2 is a postsynaptic density protein, localized on excitatory synapses as part of the NMDA receptor complex and is suggested to play a role in AMPA receptor trafficking and mediation of long-term depression. Here, we present brain-wide structural volumetric and functional connectivity characterization in a novel mouse model with a missense mutation in the IQ domain of IQSEC2 (A350V). Using high-resolution structural and functional MRI, we show that animals with the A350V mutation display increased whole-brain volume which was further found to be specific to the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. Moreover, using a data-driven approach we identify putative alterations in structure–function relations of the frontal, auditory, and visual networks in A350V mice. Examination of these alterations revealed an increase in functional connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsomedial striatum. We also show that corticostriatal functional connectivity is correlated with individual variability in social behavior only in A350V mice, as assessed using the three-chamber social preference test. Our results at the systems-level bridge the impact of previously reported changes in AMPA receptor trafficking to network-level disruption and impaired social behavior. Further, the A350V mouse model recapitulates similarly reported brain-wide changes in other ASD mouse models, with substantially different cellular-level pathologies that nonetheless result in similar brain-wide alterations, suggesting that novel therapeutic approaches in ASD that result in systems-level rescue will be relevant to IQSEC2 mutations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Nonnis ◽  
E. Angiulli ◽  
E. Maffioli ◽  
F. Frabetti ◽  
A. Negri ◽  
...  

AbstractThis study investigated the effect of 4-d acute thermal treatments at 18 °C, 26 °C (control) and 34 °C on the nervous system of adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) using a multidisciplinary approach based on behavioural tests and brain proteomic analysis. The behavioural variations induced by thermal treatment were investigated using five different tests, the novel tank diving, light and dark preference, social preference, mirror biting, and Y-Maze tests, which are standard paradigms specifically tailored for zebrafish to assess their anxiety-like behaviour, boldness, social preference, aggressiveness, and explorative behaviour, respectively. Proteomic data revealed that several proteins involved in energy metabolism, messenger RNA translation, protein synthesis, folding and degradation, cytoskeleton organisation and synaptic vesiculation are regulated differently at extreme temperatures. The results showed that anxiety-like behaviours increase in zebrafish at 18 °C compared to those at 26 °C or 34 °C, whereas anxiety-related protein signalling pathways are downregulated. Moreover, treatments at both 18 °C and 34 °C affect the exploratory behaviour that appears not to be modulated by past experiences, suggesting the impairment of fish cognitive abilities. This study is the continuation of our previous work on the effect of 21-d chronic treatment at the same constant temperature level and will enable the comparison of acute and chronic treatment effects on the nervous system function in adult zebrafish.


Author(s):  
Ahmed Eltokhi ◽  
Miguel A. Gonzalez-Lozano ◽  
Lars-Lennart Oettl ◽  
Andrey Rozov ◽  
Claudia Pitzer ◽  
...  

AbstractMutations in SHANK genes play an undisputed role in neuropsychiatric disorders. Until now, research has focused on the postsynaptic function of SHANKs, and prominent postsynaptic alterations in glutamatergic signal transmission have been reported in Shank KO mouse models. Recent studies have also suggested a possible presynaptic function of SHANK proteins, but these remain poorly defined. In this study, we examined how SHANK2 can mediate electrophysiological, molecular, and behavioral effects by conditionally overexpressing either wild-type SHANK2A or the extrasynaptic SHANK2A(R462X) variant. SHANK2A overexpression affected pre- and postsynaptic targets and revealed a reversible, development-dependent autism spectrum disorder-like behavior. SHANK2A also mediated redistribution of Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors between apical and basal hippocampal CA1 dendrites, leading to impaired synaptic plasticity in the basal dendrites. Moreover, SHANK2A overexpression reduced social interaction and increased the excitatory noise in the olfactory cortex during odor processing. In contrast, overexpression of the extrasynaptic SHANK2A(R462X) variant did not impair hippocampal synaptic plasticity, but still altered the expression of presynaptic/axonal signaling proteins. We also observed an attention-deficit/hyperactivity-like behavior and improved social interaction along with enhanced signal-to-noise ratio in cortical odor processing. Our results suggest that the disruption of pre- and postsynaptic SHANK2 functions caused by SHANK2 mutations has a strong impact on social behavior. These findings indicate that pre- and postsynaptic SHANK2 actions cooperate for normal neuronal function, and that an imbalance between these functions may lead to different neuropsychiatric disorders.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kana Okada ◽  
Kayo Nishizawa ◽  
Tomoko Kobayashi ◽  
Shogo Sakata ◽  
Kouichi Hashimoto ◽  
...  

AbstractSocial behaviour is a complex construct that is reported to include several components of social approach, interaction and recognition memory. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is mainly characterized by progressive dementia and is accompanied by cognitive impairments, including a decline in social ability. The cholinergic system is a potential constituent for the neural mechanisms underlying social behaviour, and impaired social ability in AD may have a cholinergic basis. However, the involvement of cholinergic function in social behaviour has not yet been fully understood. Here, we performed a selective elimination of cholinergic cell groups in the basal forebrain in mice to examine the role of cholinergic function in social interaction and social recognition memory by using the three-chamber test. Elimination of cholinergic neurons in the medial septum (MS) and vertical diagonal band of Broca (vDB) caused impairment in social interaction, whereas ablating cholinergic neurons in the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM) impaired social recognition memory. These impairments were restored by treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors, leading to cholinergic system activation. Our findings indicate distinct roles of MS/vDB and NBM cholinergic neurons in social interaction and social recognition memory, suggesting that cholinergic dysfunction may explain social ability deficits associated with AD symptoms.


Behaviour ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 37 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.A. Valone

Abstract1. The relation between the social behavior and the electrical emissions of Gymnotus carapo is examined. 2. Members of the species Gymnotus carapo approach certain sources of electrical stimuli and, in a statistically significant number of instances, assume a stance parallel to the plane from which the stimuli originate. 3. The approach and postural responses elicited by electrical cues resemble those observed when two fish, placed in the same tank, interact socially. 4. Electrical cues therefore appear to facilitate certain social interactions in Gymnotus carapo. 5. The character of electrical emission in Gymnotus carapo appears to change as a function of certain social interaction: a. Interaction resembling aggression is accompanied by brief increases in the frequency of emission. b. The increases in frequency appear to be linked to thrusting movements. c. Fish interacting with one another appear to lock into a common frequency more often than fish that are not in physical contact with one another. d. During social interaction, one of the two fish is occasionally observed to halt emissions altogether. 6. The exact significance of the social behavior observed in the context of the life history of Gymnotus carapo is unknown.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136-143
Author(s):  
Andrey Yakovlevich Flier

The article shows that in culture as a social system, a special role is played by normative social behavior, which regulates social interaction and communication between people, and mores, with the help of which the regulation of social interactions is carried out.


Genes ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Pasquaretta ◽  
Tamara Gómez-Moracho ◽  
Philipp Heeb ◽  
Mathieu Lihoreau

Microbes influence a wide range of host social behaviors and vice versa. So far, however, the mechanisms underpinning these complex interactions remain poorly understood. In social animals, where individuals share microbes and interact around foods, the gut microbiota may have considerable consequences on host social interactions by acting upon the nutritional behavior of individual animals. Here we illustrate how conceptual advances in nutritional ecology can help the study of these processes and allow the formulation of new empirically testable predictions. First, we review key evidence showing that gut microbes influence the nutrition of individual animals, through modifications of their nutritional state and feeding decisions. Next, we describe how these microbial influences and their social consequences can be studied by modelling populations of hosts and their gut microbiota into a single conceptual framework derived from nutritional geometry. Our approach raises new perspectives for the study of holobiont nutrition and will facilitate theoretical and experimental research on the role of the gut microbiota in the mechanisms and evolution of social behavior.


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