RUI: Vasotocin Mechanisms Controlling Social Behavior

催产素是一种在鱼类、爬行动物、两栖动物和鸟类大脑中产生的化学物质，与包括人类在内的哺乳动物大脑中产生的一种化学物质——抗利尿激素非常相似。这些相关的化学物质影响着许多动物的各种社会行为，包括求偶、攻击和配对，甚至可能在人类身上也是如此。然而，人们对这些化学物质如何在大脑内部发挥作用，对各种行为产生影响知之甚少。金鱼是研究这些过程的理想物种，因为它们非常群居，而且它们大脑中的催产素系统很容易被操纵，从而揭示这些化学物质如何起作用的重要机制。在金鱼中，催产素抑制了一种非常基本的社会行为，即对其他鱼的接近反应。目前的项目将使用行为学、神经解剖学和分子技术来确定催产素在大脑中的作用方式和位置，以诱导这种效应，以及不同程度的社交是否与这些大脑系统的个体差异有关。据预测，催产素通过激活参与控制与情绪战斗或逃跑反应相关的身体过程的大脑系统来抑制这种物种的社会接近行为。因为在包括人类在内的许多动物中，潜在控制这些过程的脑后叶催产素和后叶加压素系统是相似的，这些发现可能暗示了在动物王国中广泛存在的机制，甚至可能代表了这种化学物质影响脊椎动物社会行为的一种原始方式。因此，这些研究有可能增加我们对控制社会行为的大脑系统如何进化的理解，以及特定的神经化学过程如何影响现代物种的社会行为。本科生，其中许多是高级优等生，将在实现这些具体目标的研究中发挥重要作用。

Vasotocin is a chemical produced in the brains of fish, reptiles, amphibians and birds and is very similar to a chemical produced in the brains of mammals, including humans, which is called vasopressin. These related chemicals influence a variety of social behaviors, including courtship, aggression, and pair-bonding in numerous animals, possibly even in humans. However, little is known about how these chemicals act inside of the brain to exert their influences on a variety of behaviors. Goldfish are an ideal species in which to study such processes because they are very social and because the vasotocin systems in their brains are easily manipulated, to reveal important mechanisms for how these chemicals might work. In goldfish, vasotocin inhibits a very basic form of social behavior, approach responses toward other fish. The present project will use behavioral, neuroanatomical and molecular techniques to determine how and where vasotocin acts within the brain to induce such effects and if different levels of sociality are associated with individual differences in these brain systems. It is predicted that vasotocin inhibits social approach behavior in this species by activating brain systems involved in the control of body processes related to emotional fight or flight reactions. Because the brain vasotocin and vasopressin systems that potentially control such processes are similar in many animals, including humans, such findings could implicate mechanisms that may be widespread in the animal kingdom and may even represent one of the original ways through which this chemical affected social behavior in vertebrate animals. Therefore, these studies have the potential to increase our understanding of how the brain systems that control social behavior may have evolve, as well as of how specific neurochemical processes influence social behavior in modern species. Undergraduate students, many whom are senior honor's students, will play an important role in the implementation of studies addressing these specific goals.