Multidisciplinary Collaborative Research: Amines and Agonistic Behavior in Crustaceans

大脑中的一些生物化学物质显然会影响行为；例如，在各种脊椎动物和无脊椎动物物种中，高水平的胺化合物5-羟色胺与攻击性有关。在脊椎动物复杂的大脑中，研究特定化学物质如何影响特定单个神经细胞或神经元的功能是非常困难的。相比之下，一些无脊椎动物的大型可识别神经元数量有限，因此可以在被认为涉及的精确细胞水平上分析复杂的行为过程。这项在三个不同实验室进行的合作研究利用了小龙虾的行为和这些动物非常容易接近的神经系统作为一个模型系统。各种行为、药理学、分子和生理学方法被用来确定胺化合物如何在其社会等级中调节优势和非优势动物的攻击活动，以及特定的含胺神经细胞在这些行为中是如何重要的。这项工作的结果将是理解某些细胞用作神经递质的化合物如何对调节行为产生影响的基础。通过澄清胺在复杂行为过程中的作用，例如对动物神经系统的攻击，这些过程比这个模型系统复杂得多，结果将超越细胞神经科学和神经行为学，影响到行为神经科学和心理学的其他领域。

Some biochemicals in the brain apparently affect behavior; for example, a high level of the amine compound serotonin has been linked to aggression in a wide range of both vertebrate and invertebrate species. It is very difficult in the complex brain of vertebrate animals to study the way in which particular chemicals affect the function of particular single nerve cells, or neurons. In contrast, some invertebrate animals have limited numbers of large identifiable neurons, allowing analysis of complex behavioral processes at the level of the precise cells thought to be involved. This collaborative work in three different laboratories exploits the well-studied behavior of crayfish and the very accessible nervous system of these animals, as a model system. A variety of behavioral, pharmacological, molecular and physiological approaches are used to determine how amine compounds modulate the aggressive activity of dominant and non-dominant animals in their social hierarchies, and how particular amine- containing nerve cells are important in these behaviors. Results from this work will be fundamental to understanding how compounds that are used by certain cells as neural transmitters also can have effects on modulating behavior. By clarifying the roles of amines in complex behavioral processes, such as aggression in the nervous systems of animals far more complex than this model system, the results will have an impact beyond cellular neuroscience and neuroethology to other areas of behavior neuroscience and psychology.