Assessing social engagement in heterogeneous groups of zebrafish: a new paradigm for autism-like behavioral responses.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Maaswinkel H
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3792997 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Numerous behavioral paradigms have been developed to assess tinnitus-like behavior in animals. Nevertheless, they are often limited by prolonged training requirements, as well as an inability to simultaneously assess onset and lasting tinnitus behavior, tinnitus pitch or duration, or tinnitus presence without grouping data from multiple animals or testing sessions. To enhance behavioral testing of tinnitus, we developed a conditioned licking suppression paradigm to determine the pitch(s) of both onset and lasting tinnitus-like behavior within individual animals. Rats learned to lick water during broadband or narrowband noises, and to suppress licking to avoid footshocks during silence. After noise exposure, rats significantly increased licking during silent trials, suggesting onset tinnitus-like behavior. Lasting tinnitus-behavior, however, was exhibited in about half of noise-exposed rats through 7 weeks post-exposure tested. Licking activity during narrowband sound trials remained unchanged following noise exposure, while ABR hearing thresholds fully recovered and were comparable between tinnitus(+) and tinnitus(-) rats. To assess another tinnitus inducer, rats were injected with sodium salicylate. They demonstrated high pitch tinnitus-like behavior, but later recovered by 5 days post-injection. Further control studies showed that 1): sham noise-exposed rats tested with footshock did not exhibit tinnitus-like behavior, and 2): noise-exposed or sham rats tested without footshocks showed no fundamental changes in behavior compared to those tested with shocks. Together, these results demonstrate that this paradigm can efficiently test the development of noise- and salicylate-induced tinnitus behavior. The ability to assess tinnitus individually, over time, and without averaging data enables us to realistically address tinnitus in a clinically relevant way. Thus, we believe that this optimized behavioral paradigm will facilitate investigations into the mechanisms of tinnitus and development of effective treatments.
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Project description:From primates to bees, social status regulates reproduction. In the cichlid fish Astatotilapia (Haplochromis) burtoni, subordinate males have reduced fertility and must become dominant to reproduce. This increase in sexual capacity is orchestrated by neurons in the preoptic area, which enlarge in response to dominance and increase expression of gonadotropin-releasing hormone 1 (GnRH1), a peptide critical for reproduction. Using a novel behavioral paradigm, we show for the first time that subordinate males can become dominant within minutes of an opportunity to do so, displaying dramatic changes in body coloration and behavior. We also found that social opportunity induced expression of the immediate-early gene egr-1 in the anterior preoptic area, peaking in regions with high densities of GnRH1 neurons, and not in brain regions that express the related peptides GnRH2 and GnRH3. This genomic response did not occur in stable subordinate or stable dominant males even though stable dominants, like ascending males, displayed dominance behaviors. Moreover, egr-1 in the optic tectum and the cerebellum was similarly induced in all experimental groups, showing that egr-1 induction in the anterior preoptic area of ascending males was specific to this brain region. Because egr-1 codes for a transcription factor important in neural plasticity, induction of egr-1 in the anterior preoptic area by social opportunity could be an early trigger in the molecular cascade that culminates in enhanced fertility and other long-term physiological changes associated with dominance.
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Project description:This study aimed to identify the heterogeneous trajectory classes of social engagement among older adults in China and examine sex differences to determine how sociodemographic characteristics and health status impact these trajectory classes. A sample of 8117 participants aged ≥65 years from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey was included. Growth mixture modeling was conducted to estimate the trajectory classes of social engagement. Logistic regression was adopted to analyze the associations between individual characteristics and trajectory classes. Three trajectory classes of social engagement were identified: the high-decline (35.3%), medium-decline (57.6%), and low-increase (7.1%). Men were less likely to be in the medium-decline and low-increase classes than women. Older men benefited from economic factors more than women. Education exhibited a stronger protective effect on the high-decline class for older women. High physical functioning might enable older adults with the lowest initial level of social engagement to make efforts to engage in social activities, which was stronger for older men than women. For both men and women, a proper cognitive state and positive emotions were in favor of social engagement. These findings are valuable for achieving sex equity in social engagement development for healthy and active aging.
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