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.

优势等级组织组织了所有社会动物的社会行为，以及对它们的贡献的行为是可以立即识别的。 尽管社会主导地位的无处不在和重要性，但对任何物种中的神经底物的理解很少。 血清素被确定为一种神经递质，有助于介导脊椎动物和无脊椎动物中的社会优势。 尽管5-羟色胺在中枢神经系统中具有许多作用和作用部位，但与社会优势相关的效果和部位在很大程度上是未知的。 解决这个问题的一种方法是检查5-羟色胺如何影响帮助控制行为特定方面的神经回路，并确定这些影响如何随社会优势状况而变化。 训练有素的神经回路逃脱行为在小龙虾中提供了一个机会，可以确定动物社会地位的变化如何导致5-羟色胺对逃生神经回路兴奋性的影响的变化。 较早的工作表明，5-羟色胺对横向巨人（LG）命令神经元的兴奋性的影响因社会主导的小龙虾的促进到抑制下属小龙虾而异。 在小龙虾中已经鉴定出了两种用于5-羟色胺的分子受体，并描述了它们在小龙虾神经系统中的分布。 该项目将检验以下假设：羟色胺在主导和下属小龙虾中的作用差异是由于影响LG神经元兴奋性的5-羟色胺受体的差异或功效所致。 LG逃脱回路中受体分布的差异将使用荧光标记的受体抗体确定。 5-羟色胺激动剂和针对每个受体的拮抗剂将用于确定其激活如何有助于5-HT在每种社交类型的动物中的影响。 这项研究将表明5-羟色胺受体的分布和作用的差异如何在主导和下属小龙虾中产生神经系统功能的差异。 由于5-羟色胺的作用会影响许多动物的社会地位，因此这些机制在动物界很可能是广泛的。 这项工作将为博士后学生和一些来自GSU的本科生以及行为神经科学中心（CBN）的其他成员提供研究培训机会。 这项研究将在CBN的侵略和隶属关系合作社中介绍和讨论，因此有助于CBN任务。