PUBLICATION
Perceptual mechanisms of social affiliation in zebrafish
- Authors
- Nunes, A.R., Carreira, L., Anbalagan, S., Blechman, J., Levkowitz, G., Oliveira, R.F.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-200229-14
- Date
- 2020
- Source
- Scientific Reports 10: 3642 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Anbalagan, Savani, Blechman, Janna, Levkowitz, Gil
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Behavior, Animal/physiology*
- Social Behavior*
- Zebrafish/physiology*
- PubMed
- 32107434 Full text @ Sci. Rep.
Citation
Nunes, A.R., Carreira, L., Anbalagan, S., Blechman, J., Levkowitz, G., Oliveira, R.F. (2020) Perceptual mechanisms of social affiliation in zebrafish. Scientific Reports. 10:3642.
Abstract
Social living animals need to recognize the presence of conspecifics in the environment in order to engage in adaptive social interactions. Social cues can be detected through different sensory modalities, including vision. Two main visual features can convey information about the presence of conspecifics: body form and biological motion (BM). Given the role that oxytocin plays in social behavior regulation across vertebrates, particularly in the salience and reward values of social stimuli, we hypothesized that it may also be involved in the modulation of perceptual mechanisms for conspecific detection. Here, using videoplaybacks, we assessed the role of conspecific form and BM in zebrafish social affiliation, and how oxytocin regulates the perception of these cues. We demonstrated that while each visual cue is important for social attraction, BM promotes a higher fish engagement than the static conspecific form alone. Moreover, using a mutant line for one of the two oxytocin receptors, we show that oxytocin signaling is involved in the regulation of BM detection but not conspecific form recognition. In summary, our results indicate that, apart from oxytocin role in the regulation of social behaviors through its effect on higher-order cognitive mechanisms, it may regulate social behavior by modulating very basic perceptual mechanisms underlying the detection of socially-relevant cues.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping