The Front Range Student Ecology Symposium is in full swing here at CSU this week. Kim D. presented an oral presentation today on Divergent Decision Rules in Alternative Mating Tactics in Trinidadian guppies.
Abstract from the FRESES Program:
WHAT IN YOUR RIGHT MIND WOULD MAKE YOU DO THAT?
Colorado State University, Graduate.
With Kimberly Dolphin (CSU), Kim Hoke (CSU)
Behavioral plasticity allows strategies toward conspecifics to change on an acute time scale to balance trade-offs presented in different environments and social contexts. However, decisions between strategies may be biased by the genetic and developmental history of the individual from differences within the brain, and may have strong implications for an organism's ability to adapt in novel environments and respond to cues about risk or reward. Using male Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata), we tested how evolutionary history and rearing environment affects which behavioral strategies are adopted and affects the patterns of neural activation in socially relevant brain regions across five acute social contexts. We used these fish because they originate from populations that have evolved with either high or low predation threat, and now have different behavioral strategies and morphologies. We scored behaviors of focal males in these social contexts and then measured neural activation using immunoreactivity for phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 (pS6). Ancestry and rearing conditions influence the behavioral strategies fish adopt when placed in different acute social contexts. Patterns of pS6 induction across the brain regions studied are associated with behavioral strategies adopted in each acute context. Our results show circuit level neural mechanisms underlie the behavioral plasticity and flexibility we see in males from populations with differing predation threats.
Abstract from the FRESES Program:
WHAT IN YOUR RIGHT MIND WOULD MAKE YOU DO THAT?
Colorado State University, Graduate.
With Kimberly Dolphin (CSU), Kim Hoke (CSU)
Behavioral plasticity allows strategies toward conspecifics to change on an acute time scale to balance trade-offs presented in different environments and social contexts. However, decisions between strategies may be biased by the genetic and developmental history of the individual from differences within the brain, and may have strong implications for an organism's ability to adapt in novel environments and respond to cues about risk or reward. Using male Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata), we tested how evolutionary history and rearing environment affects which behavioral strategies are adopted and affects the patterns of neural activation in socially relevant brain regions across five acute social contexts. We used these fish because they originate from populations that have evolved with either high or low predation threat, and now have different behavioral strategies and morphologies. We scored behaviors of focal males in these social contexts and then measured neural activation using immunoreactivity for phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 (pS6). Ancestry and rearing conditions influence the behavioral strategies fish adopt when placed in different acute social contexts. Patterns of pS6 induction across the brain regions studied are associated with behavioral strategies adopted in each acute context. Our results show circuit level neural mechanisms underlie the behavioral plasticity and flexibility we see in males from populations with differing predation threats.