ABSTRACT
How brains encode social stimuli and transform these representations into advantageous behavioral responses is not well-understood. Here, we show that social isolation activates an oxytocinergic, nociceptive circuit in the larval zebrafish hypothalamus. We further demonstrate that chemical cues released from conspecific animals modulate its activity to regulate defensive behaviors and appetite. Our collective data reveals a model through which social stimuli can be integrated into fundamental neural circuits to mediate adaptive behaviour.
Copyright
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.