Neural Mechanisms of Dominance Behavior

支配行为的神经机制

• 批准号: 0641326
• 负责人: Donald Edwards
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-04-15 至 2012-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0641326&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Neural; Mechanisms; Dominance; Behavior

Dominance hierarchies organize the social behavior of all social animals, and the behaviors that contribute to them are immediately recognizable. Despite the ubiquity and importance of social dominance, little is understood about its neural substrates in any species. Serotonin has been identified as a neurotransmitter that helps mediate social dominance in vertebrates and invertebrates. Although serotonin has many effects and sites of action in the central nervous system, the effects and sites that are relevant to social dominance are largely unknown. One approach to this problem is to examine how serotonin affects neural circuits that help govern specific aspects of behavior, and to determine how these effects change with social dominance status. The well-understood neural circuitry for escape behavior in crayfish provides an opportunity to determine how changes in an animal's social status lead to changes in the effect of serotonin on the excitability of neural circuits for escape. Earlier work has shown that serotonin's effect on the excitability of the lateral giant (LG) command neuron for escape varies from facilitation in socially dominant crayfish to inhibition in subordinate crayfish. Two molecular receptors for serotonin have been identified in crayfish, and their distributions in the crayfish nervous system have been described. This project will test the hypothesis that the differences in serotonin's effects in dominant and subordinate crayfish result from differences in the distribution or the efficacy of serotonin receptors that affect the LG neuron's excitability. Differences in receptor distribution in the LG escape circuit will be determined using fluorescently labeled antibodies to the receptors. Serotonin agonists and antagonists specific to each receptor will be used to determine how its activation contributes to the effect of 5-HT in each social type of animal. This research will show how differences in the distribution and action of serotonin receptors produce differences in nervous system function in dominant and subordinate crayfish. Because the action of serotonin affects social status in many animals, these mechanisms are likely to be widespread in the animal kingdom. This work will provide research training opportunities for a Post-doctoral student and a few undergraduates drawn from GSU and from other members of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN). The research will be presented and discussed at the CBN's Aggression and Affiliation Collaboratories, and so contribute to the CBN mission.

统治等级组织了所有群居动物的社会行为，而促成这些行为的行为是立即可识别的。尽管社会支配的普遍性和重要性，人们对任何物种的社会支配的神经基质知之甚少。血清素已被确定为一种神经递质，有助于调节脊椎动物和无脊椎动物的社会支配地位。虽然血清素在中枢神经系统中有许多作用和作用部位，但与社会支配相关的作用和作用部位在很大程度上是未知的。解决这个问题的一种方法是研究血清素如何影响帮助控制特定行为方面的神经回路，并确定这些影响如何随着社会支配地位而变化。对小龙虾逃跑行为的神经回路的充分理解为确定动物社会地位的变化如何导致血清素对逃跑神经回路兴奋性影响的变化提供了机会。早期的研究表明，5 -羟色胺对侧巨（LG）命令神经元的兴奋性有不同的影响，从社会优势小龙虾的促进作用到从属小龙虾的抑制作用。在小龙虾中发现了两种5 -羟色胺分子受体，并描述了它们在小龙虾神经系统中的分布。该项目将验证5 -羟色胺在主导和从属小龙虾中的作用差异是由于影响LG神经元兴奋性的5 -羟色胺受体分布或功效的差异造成的。LG逃逸回路中受体分布的差异将使用荧光标记的受体抗体来确定。每种受体特异性的5-羟色胺激动剂和拮抗剂将用于确定其激活如何促进5-羟色胺在每种社会类型动物中的作用。这项研究将揭示5 -羟色胺受体的分布和作用的差异如何在主导和从属小龙虾中产生神经系统功能的差异。由于血清素的作用影响许多动物的社会地位，这些机制可能在动物界广泛存在。这项工作将为来自GSU和行为神经科学中心（CBN）的其他成员的博士后学生和一些本科生提供研究培训机会。这项研究将在CBN的侵略和隶属合作实验室进行介绍和讨论，从而为CBN的使命做出贡献。