Dynamics in Brain Activation and Behaviour in Acute and Repeated Social Defensive Behaviour

Overview

Journal Proc Biol Sci

Specialty Biology

Date 2022 Jun 15

PMID 35703050

Authors

Alisson P de Almeida

Marcus V C Baldo

Simone C Motta

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In nature, confrontations between conspecifics are recurrent and related, in general, due to the lack of resources such as food and territory. Adequate defence against a conspecific aggressor is essential for the individual's survival and the group integrity. However, repeated social defeat is a significant stressor promoting several behavioural changes, including social defence . What would be the neural basis of these behavioural changes? To build new hypotheses about this, we here investigate the effects of repeated social stress on the neural circuitry underlying motivated social defence behaviour in male mice. We observed that animals re-exposed to the aggressor three times spent more time in passive defence during the last exposure than in the first one. These animals also show less activation of the amygdalar and hypothalamic nuclei related to the processing of conspecific cues. In turn, we found no changes in the activation of the hypothalamic dorsal pre-mammillary nucleus (PMD) that is essential for passive defence. Therefore, our data suggest that the balance between the activity of circuits related to conspecific processing and the PMD determines the pattern of social defence behaviour. Changes in this balance may be the basis of the adaptations in social defence after repeated social defeat.

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Dynamics in brain activation and behaviour in acute and repeated social defensive behaviour.

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