Lecture 6 - Social Behaviour Flashcards
What is social behaviour?
It encompasses interactions between individuals from which one or more individuals benefit
Name some psychiatric disorders with social deficits
Schizophrenia
Autism
Social Phobia
What role does Oxytocin play in social behaviour?
It facilitates innate social preference and reversal of social defeat induced social avoidance of male Wistar rats
Outline an experiment to test flocking in gregarious zebra finches
Present them with a large group and a small group and compare the relative times spent with each. Found the time spent in the large group decrease when mesotocin was applied
What are the key brain regions involved in social behaviour?
Lateral septum Preoptic area Paraventricular nucleus Medial amygdala BSTm Anterior hypothalamus Ventromedial hypothalamus Periaqueductal grey matter tegmentum
How does early life stress impair social recognition?
A blunted response of vasopressin release within the spetum
What was the finding when studying OXT-AVT in finches?
That the more gregarious the bird the higher the LSc.d/LScv.vl density ratio
Where are social odours processed?
Medial amygdala
What regulates pair bonding in male prairie voles?
Vasopressin
Outline the social recognition memory pathway
Acquisition –> Maintenance/Consolidation –> retrieval
How can social discriminaton be tested?
Give them a learning phase, then seperate them, then reunite along with others, and test rcognition
What are the complex social behaviours?
Social approach
social recognition
vocalization
What are the basic social behaviours?
Sexual behavious pair bonding maternal behaviour empathy aggression
What is aggression?
behaviour directed toward the goal of having or injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment
Outline the resident intruder paradigm in rats
- Adult male rats are pair housed witha female, to induce the feeling of it being his own territory and resources
- Introduction of an unknown male intruder
What are the aggressive rat behaviours?
Offensive upright
keep down
lateral threat
attack/clinch
What are the non-aggressive rat behaviours?
Social investigation
exploration
inactivity
mounting
Which neurotransmitters primarily control aggression?
5HT and AVP
What does low 5HT cause in aggression?
Increased impulsivity
Whar does high 5HT cause in aggression?
Reduced aggression
How can empathy be tested in rats?
Put in an object in a cage, which can be opened by the rat. Repeat with another rat inside.
Found that they learnt how to open the cage for a cagemate but not an object
List non-verbal social behaviour deficits common in psychiatric disorders
Social withdrawal and social phobia
impaired social cognition
disturbed affiliative behaviour
reduced cognitive and affective empathy
What frequency are negative social experience vocalisations in rats?
40kHz and 22kHz
What frequency are positive social experiences in rats?
50kHz
Outline an experiment testing the affect of positive vocalisation
Have a stellar platform. Play a positive vocalisation at one end, see if the animal approches.
It was found that 50kHz caused approach and 22kHz caused no approach
