Ca2+ imaging of self and other in medial prefrontal cortex during social dominance interactions in a tube test.
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The study of social dominance interactions between animals offers a window onto the decision-making involved in establishing dominance hierarchies and an opportunity to examine changes in social behavior observed in certain neurogenetic disorders. Competitive social interactions, such as in the widely used tube test, reflect this decision-making. Previous studies have focused on the different patterns of behavior seen in the dominant and submissive animal, neural correlates of effortful behavior believed to mediate the outcome of such encounters, and interbrain correlations of neural activity. Using a rigorous mutual information criterion, we now report that neural responses recorded with endoscopic calcium imaging in the prelimbic zone of the medial prefrontal cortex show unique correlations to specific dominance-related behaviors. Interanimal analyses revealed cell/behavior correlations that are primarily with an animal's own behavior or with the other animal's behavior, or the coincident behavior of both animals (such as pushing by one and resisting by the other). The comparison of unique and coincident cells helps to disentangle cell firing that reflects an animal's own or the other's specific behavior from situations reflecting conjoint action. These correlates point to a more cognitive rather than a solely behavioral dimension of social interactions that needs to be considered in the design of neurobiological studies of social behavior. These could prove useful in studies of disorders affecting social recognition and social engagement, and the treatment of disorders of social interaction.
Date Issued
2022-08-02
Date Acceptance
2022-05-02
Citation
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, 2022, 119 (31), pp.1-12
ISSN
0027-8424
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Start Page
1
End Page
12
Journal / Book Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA
Volume
119
Issue
31
Copyright Statement
© 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.This open access article is distributed underCreativeCommons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35881809
Subjects
endoscopic imaging
prefrontal cortex
rodents
social dominance
tube test
Animals
Calcium
Prefrontal Cortex
Social Dominance
Social Interaction
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2022-07-26