The organization of the diencephalon and the pretectum in the cichlid fish, <i>Haplochromis burtoni</i>

Fernald, Russell D.; Shelton, L.

doi:10.1002/cne.902380207

Cited by 113 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…A frozen stage (BFS-30MP; Physitemp) mounted to a dissection scope was used during microdissection, which was performed with a modified 27-G needle with an internal diameter of 190 μm. An established protocol was followed to microdissect specific brain regions from the 300-μm thick slices (17,(42)(43)(44). Brain atlases from A. burtoni (45,46) and other fishes (47)(48)(49) were used to target the nuclei of the SBN: PAG, AH, Vm, Dm, POA, and LS.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female genomic response to mate information

Desjardins

Klausner²,

Fernald³

2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Females should be choosier than males about prospective mates because of the high costs of inappropriate mating decisions. Both theoretical and empirical studies have identified factors likely to influence female mate choices. However, male-male social interactions also can affect mating decisions, because information about a potential mate can trigger changes in female reproductive physiology. We asked how social information about a preferred male influenced neural activity in females, using immediate early gene (IEG) expression as a proxy for brain activity. A gravid female cichlid fish (Astatotilapia burtoni) chose between two socially equivalent males and then saw fights between these two males in which her preferred male either won or lost. We measured IEG expression levels in several brain nuclei including those in the vertebrate social behavior network (SBN), a collection of brain nuclei known to be important in social behavior. When the female saw her preferred male win a fight, SBN nuclei associated with reproduction were activated, but when she saw her preferred male lose a fight, the lateral septum, a nucleus associated with anxiety, was activated instead. Thus social information alone, independent of actual social interactions, activates specific brain regions that differ significantly depending on what the female sees. In female brains, reproductive centers are activated when she chooses a winner, and anxiety-like response centers are activated when she chooses a loser. These experiments assessing the role of mate-choice information on the brain using a paradigm of successive presentations of mate information suggest ways to understand the consequences of social information on animals using IEG expression. cellular homologue of fos | early growth response factor 1 | preoptic area | egr-1 F emales should be choosier about prospective mates than males, because bad mating decisions result in high costs (1). Consequently, studies on female assessment of male characteristics have produced conceptual, theoretical, and empirical information identifying key factors mediating female mate choice (for reviews, see refs. 2 and 3). Perhaps unsurprisingly, there is evidence that females also may use information about malemale social interactions in their mate-choice decisions (4-9), but little is known about how the brain responds to this kind of information.In many species, social information about potential mates can change female reproductive physiology and gene expression. For example, in zebra finch females (Taeniopygia guttata), expression of immediate early genes (IEGs) in telencephalic auditory areas increase in response to hearing a preferred male's song (10). Similarly, in female European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), recent social interactions with males influence forebrain gene expression in response to mate-choice cues (11). This has also been shown in female swordtail fish (12). We predicted that social information also could affect nuclei in the social behavior network (SBN) initially identified by...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female genomic response to mate information

Desjardins

Klausner²,

Fernald³

2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…To microdissect specific brain regions, slides were placed on a frozen stage (BFS-30MP, Physitemp, Clifton, NJ, USA), viewed under a dissection microscope, and tissue was collected with a modified 23G needle (inner diameter ~390μm) attached to a syringe. Brain atlases from A. burtoni (Fernald and Shelton, 1985;Burmeister et al, 2009) and other fish species (Munoz-Cueto et al, 2001) were used to target brain regions that were centered on the following nuclei [proposed putative mammalian homologs are given in parentheses and are based on consensus from the following reviews (Wullimann and Mueller, 2004;Goodson, 2005;O'Connell and Hofmann, 2011;Maximino et al, 2013)]: lateral part of the dorsal telencephalon (Dl; sampled in ventral region, Dlv) (hippocampus, medial pallium); medial part of the dorsal telencephalon (Dm) (pallial amygdala, ventral pallium); ventral nucleus of the ventral telencephalon (Vv) (septal formation in part); supracommissural nucleus of the ventral telencephalon (Vs; sampled in Vsm region) (extended amygdala: medial amygdala, central amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis); preoptic area (POA) (preoptic area); ventral tuberal nucleus (VTn) (anterior hypothalamus in part); anterior tuberal nucleus (ATn) (ventromedial hypothalamus in part); and corpus , a resident dominant male was housed with two females in the center compartment and separated from a small community (one dominant male, two females) on the left by a transparent barrier. The intruder was housed in the right compartment behind an opaque barrier.…”

Section: Tissue Preparation Microdissection and Quantitative Reversementioning

confidence: 99%

Social descent with territory loss causes rapid behavioral, endocrine, and transcriptional changes in the brain

Maruska

Becker

Neboori

et al. 2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYIn social species that form hierarchies where only dominant males reproduce, lower-ranking individuals may challenge higherranking ones, often resulting in changes in relative social status. How does a losing animal respond to loss of status? Here, using the African cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni, we manipulated the social environment, causing males to descend in rank, and then examined changes in behavior, circulating steroids and immediate early gene (IEG) expression (cfos, egr-1) in micro-dissected brain regions as a proxy for neuronal activation. In particular, we examined changes in the conserved 'social behavior network' (SBN), a collection of brain nuclei known to regulate social behaviors across vertebrates. Astatotilapia burtoni has rapidly reversible dominant-subordinate male phenotypes, so that within minutes, descending males lost their bright body coloration, switched to submissive behaviors and expressed higher plasma cortisol levels compared with non-descending and control males. Descending males had higher IEG expression throughout the SBN, but each brain region showed a distinct IEG-specific response in either cfos or egr-1 levels, but not both. Overall, SBN IEG patterns in descending males were distinctly different from the pattern observed in males ascending (subordinate to dominant) in social status. These results reveal that the SBN rapidly coordinates the perception of social cues about status that are of opposite valence, and translates them into appropriate phenotypic changes. This shows for the first time in a non-mammalian vertebrate that dropping in social rank rapidly activates specific socially relevant brain nuclei in a pattern that differs from when males rise to a higher status position.

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“…A frozen stage (Physitemp) viewed through a dissection microscope was used for microdissection, performed with a modified 27G needle with an internal diameter of 190 mm following an established protocol (Korzan et al 2000). Brain atlases from A. burtoni (Fernald & Shelton 1985;Burmeister et al 2009) and from other fish species (e.g. Reiner & Northcutt 1992) were used to target the Cce, Dl, Dm and POA and for all of these brain areas, the entire nucleus was collected and treated identically (e.g.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What do fish make of mirror images?

2010

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Fish act aggressively towards their mirror image suggesting that they consider it another individual, whereas in some mammals behavioural response to mirrors may be an evidence of selfrecognition. Since fish cannot self-recognize, we asked whether they could distinguish between fighting a mirror image and fighting a real fish. We compared molecular, physiological and behavioural responses in each condition and found large differences in brain gene expression levels. Although neither levels of aggressive behaviour nor circulating androgens differed between these conditions, males fighting a mirror image had higher immediate early gene (IEG) expression in brain areas homologous to the amygdala and hippocampus than controls. Since amygdalar responses are associated with fear and fear conditioning in other species, higher levels of brain activation when fighting a mirror suggest fish experience fear in response to fights with a mirror image. Clearly, the fish recognize something unusual about the mirror image and the differential brain response may reflect a cognitive distinction.

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The organization of the diencephalon and the pretectum in the cichlid fish, Haplochromis burtoni

Cited by 113 publications

References 41 publications

Female genomic response to mate information

Female genomic response to mate information

Social descent with territory loss causes rapid behavioral, endocrine, and transcriptional changes in the brain

What do fish make of mirror images?

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