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互动时，它会有一种生理反应。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，在社交后，荷尔蒙，如睾丸素，会增加。一个重要的问题是，这种荷尔蒙释放是否会影响未来的行为。因为一些荷尔蒙可以产生积极的、有益的反应，所以对某个地点的偏爱可能是因为释放了一种荷尔蒙，比如睾酮。因此，任何导致睾酮释放的男性和男性或男性和女性的相互作用都可能诱导个体反复寻找那个位置。因此，荷尔蒙释放可能会通过发展对特定地点的偏好来影响个人使用空间的方式。这项研究首次调查了睾丸激素的奖赏性质与特定地点偏好的发展有关的自然功能。这项研究可能会揭示一种新的机制，即睾酮脉冲，用于快速反应以适应与特定地点相关的不断变化的社会条件。研究人员利用注射睾酮后的条件性位置偏爱发展来洞察一种一夫一妻制和地区物种--双亲加州小鼠--不同社会需求的平衡机制。假说是，睾丸激素脉冲诱导出适合环境的社会需求的空间分布，进而以父性和领地行为、配偶关系维持、配偶广告和配偶照顾的形式改变与环境相适应的行为。睾丸激素诱导的空间分布可能只通过位置影响行为，或者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。他们通过评估现场和实验室中的声音交流，研究了睾丸激素修饰的社会互动的复杂方面。研究人员建议研究三个目标，以解决T脉冲的功能及其对焦点对结合的雄性及其配偶的条件性位置偏好和社会行为的影响(目标1a)，雄性与幼崽的焦点互动(目标1b)，雄性与雌性入侵者的焦点互动(目标2)，以及雄性与雄性入侵者的焦点互动(目标3)。这项研究将创造一个刺激和合作的学生培训环境，具有独特的体验，将现场和实验室的行为内分泌学研究结合在一起。中西部地区研究中心与南部小型研究机构合作，在加利福尼亚州黑斯廷斯自然历史保护区进行实地考察，将促进专业知识在研究人员和学生(包括STEM URM学生)中的广泛传播。该项目将与一个成功的10年前的外展项目“蝙蝠和老鼠在你的后院”相结合。正在开发两个软件包，以根据现场收集的热视频自动分析超声波发声和鼠标行为，并将在开放源码许可下提供

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