Social Behaviour- Affiliation 8

Question 1

What is affiliation?

Answer 1

When animals come together

Question 2

Give an example of affiliation and aggression

Answer 2

Meadow vole: females aggressively defend territories in summer breeding season but in winter will share them with individuals of both sexes

Question 3

What is Affiliation linked to?

Answer 3

Nonapeptides, produced by neurons in the hypothalamus and secreted by the posterior pituitary gland

Question 4

What is different about prairie voles?

Answer 4

They’re socially monogamous and live in pairs underground in burrows

Question 5

What was found in the partner preference test on female prairie voles?

Answer 5

Oxytocin acts in the brain to promote pair bonding in females

Question 6

What was found in the partner preference test on male prairie voles?

Answer 6

Males spent significantly more time with their partner after central injection of vasopressin but not oxytocin like females

Question 7

What was found to be responsible for the difference in pair bonding in prairie voles compared to other vole species?

Answer 7

There was a huge difference in receptor binding for oxytocin and areas rich in dopamine- linked to reward and addiction

Question 8

What was found in the V1aR gene of the prairie vole?

Answer 8

A 428bp microsatellite sequence was found in the regulatory region which could account for different expression patterns between species

Question 9

What did the study on mice and the V1aR gene find?

Answer 9

Mice expression the V1aR gene became monogomous

A single gene mutation is sufficient to cause a dramatic change in behaviour

Question 10

What is the bird equivalent of oxytocin?

Answer 10

Mesotocin

Question 11

What did the study looking at social responses on cichlid fish find?

Answer 11

Fish objected peripherally with isotocin shaved more aggressively to larger fish

Fish of middle social ranking injected became more submissive

Isotocin affected the way the fish processed social information