The effect of testosterone pulses and conditioned place preferences on social behavior in wild and laboratory Peromyscus mice

当一个动物个体与另一个个体相互作用时，它会产生生理反应。研究人员正试图了解生理反应如何影响当前和未来的行为。其他研究表明，荷尔蒙，如睾酮，在社交互动后会增加。一个重要的问题是，这种激素的释放是否会影响未来的行为。因为一些激素可以导致积极的、有益的反应，对一个地方的偏好可以形成对激素（如睾酮）释放的反应。因此，任何导致睾酮释放的男性-男性或男性-女性互动都可能导致个体反复寻找那个位置。因此，荷尔蒙的释放可能会影响个体如何通过对特定地点的偏好来利用空间。这项研究首次调查了睾丸激素的奖励特性与特定地点偏好发展相关的自然功能。这项研究可能揭示了一种新的机制——睾丸激素脉冲，它可以快速反应，适应与特定地点相关的不断变化的社会条件。研究人员利用睾酮注射后的条件位置偏好发展，来深入了解一夫一妻制和有领地性的双亲加利福尼亚鼠之间平衡不同社会需求的机制。该假说认为，睾丸激素脉冲会诱导适合于环境社会需求的空间分布，进而改变与环境相适应的行为，如父权和领地行为、配偶维系、配偶宣传和配偶出席等。睾酮诱导的空间分布可能仅通过位置影响行为，也可能进一步放大和改变社会互动。在这个框架内，研究人员在简单和复杂的环境中测试问题。他们通过评估野外和实验室的声音交流来研究睾酮修饰的社会互动的复杂方面。研究人员提出了三个目标来研究T脉冲的功能及其对焦点配对雄性及其配偶（Aim 1a）、焦点雄性与幼崽的互动（Aim 1b）、焦点雄性与雌性入侵者的互动（Aim 2）和焦点雄性与雄性入侵者的互动（Aim 3）的条件偏好和社会行为的影响。这项研究将创造一个激励和协作的学生训练环境，结合独特的经验，在现场和实验室的行为内分泌学研究。中西部R1与南部小型研究机构之间的合作，将在加利福尼亚州黑斯廷斯自然历史保护区进行实地考察，将促进研究人员和学生（包括STEM URM学生）之间的专业知识广泛传播。该项目将与一个成功开展了10年的外展项目“你家后院的蝙蝠和老鼠”相结合。目前正在开发两个软件包，用于从现场收集的热视频中自动分析超声波发声和鼠标行为，并将在开源许可下提供

When an individual animal interacts with another individual, it has a physiological response. The researchers are trying to understand how physiological responses can influence current and future behavior. Other studies have shown that hormones, such as testosterone, can increase after a social interaction. An important question is whether this hormone release can influence future behavior. Because some hormones can result in a positive, rewarding response, a preference for a location can form in response to the release of a hormone such as testosterone. Thus, any male-male or male-female interaction that results in the release of testosterone may induce an individual to seek out that location repeatedly. Hormone release may therefore influence how individuals use space through the development of preferences for specific locations. This research investigates, for the first time, the natural function of the reward-like properties of testosterone related to the development of preferences for specific locations. This research may reveal a new mechanism, testosterone pulses, for responding rapidly to adapt to changing social conditions associated with specific locations.The researchers use conditioned place preference development in response to testosterone injections to provide insight into the mechanisms balancing the different social demands of a monogamous and territorial species, the biparental California mouse. The hypothesis is that testosterone pulses induce spatial distributions appropriate for the social demands of the environment and, in turn, alter context appropriate behaviors in the form of paternal and territorial behavior, pair bond maintenance, mate advertisement and mate-attendance. The testosterone-induced spatial distribution may influence behavior only through location or may further amplify and alter social interactions. Within this framework, the researchers test questions in both simple and complex environments. They examine complex aspects of testosterone-modified social interactions by assessing acoustic communication in the field and laboratory. The researchers propose to examine three aims to address the function of T pulses and resulting effects on conditioned place preferences and social behavior for focal pair-bonded males and their mates (Aim 1a), focal male interactions with pups (Aim 1b), focal male interactions with a female intruder (Aim 2), and focal male interactions with a male intruder (Aim 3). This research will create a stimulating and collaborative student-training environment with unique experiences that integrate behavioral endocrinology studies in the field and laboratory. The collaboration between a midwestern R1 and small southern research institution with fieldwork conducted at the Hastings Natural History Reserve in California, will facilitate wide dissemination of expertise across researchers and students, including STEM URM students. The project will be integrated with a successful 10-year old outreach program called "Bats and Mice in Your Backyard." Two software packages are being developed to automate the analysis of ultrasonic vocalizations and mouse behavior from thermal videos collected in the field and will be made available under an open source license