Sex-specific plasticity in brain morphology depends on social environment of the guppy, Poecilia reticulata
Sex-specific plasticity in brain morphology depends on social environment of the guppy, Poecilia reticulata
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DOI：
10.1007/s00265-012-1403-7
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发表时间：
2012-11-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Kolm, Niclas
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kotrschal, Alexander;Rogell, Bjorn;Kolm, Niclas
脊椎动物的大脑是一个非常可塑的器官，它对环境的变化反应迅速。然而，迄今为止，研究大脑形态可塑性的研究主要集中在周围环境的物理特性上，对大脑可塑性对社会环境的反应知之甚少。此外，大脑可塑性的性别差异几乎仍未得到探索。在这里，我们测试了社会环境如何影响成年男性和女性的大脑形态，使用实验操作的社会对（同性与混合性别）的孔雀鱼（孔雀鱼）的性别组成。我们在整体大脑大小（控制身体大小）和单独的大脑结构中都检测到了大量的性别特异性可塑性。与女性互动的男性大脑体积更大，女性视顶盖在女性组中更大。总体而言，女性有较大的嗅球和小脑相比，男性。虽然大脑结构中的净性别二态性可以根据两性之间的大胆和觅食行为的已知差异来解释，但我们的研究结果也支持与求偶行为相关的认知需求可能导致大脑大小的可塑性变化。我们的研究结果表明，不仅社会环境可以在脊椎动物大脑中产生快速的可塑性反应，而且这种反应强烈依赖于性别。
The vertebrate brain is a remarkably plastic organ, which responds quickly to environmental changes. However, to date, studies investigating plasticity in brain morphology have focused mostly on the physical properties of the surrounding environment, and little is known about brain plasticity in response to the social environment. Moreover, sex differences in brain plasticity remain virtually unexplored. Here, we tested how the social environment influenced brain morphology in adult males and females using experimental manipulation of the sex composition of social pairs (same sex vs. mixed sex) in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). We detected substantial sex-specific plasticity in both the overall brain size (controlling for body size) and separate brain structures. The brain size was larger in males that interacted with females, and female optic tectum was larger in female-only groups. Overall, females had larger olfactory bulbs and cerebellum in comparison to males. While net sexual dimorphism in the brain structure can be explained in light of the known differences in boldness and foraging behaviour between the sexes, our results also support that cognitive demands associated with courtship behaviour can lead to plastic changes in the brain size. Our findings demonstrate that not only social environment can generate rapid, plastic responses in the vertebrate brain but also that such responses can depend strongly on sex.