Socially-mediated activation in the snake social-decision-making network

Behav Brain Res. 2024 Mar 22:114965. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.114965. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTBrain areas important for social perception, social reward, and social behavior - collectively referred to as the social-decision-making network (SDN) - appear to be highly conserved across taxa. These brain areas facilitate a variety of social behaviors such as conspecific approach/avoidance, aggression, mating, parental care, and recognition. Although the SDN has been investigated across taxa, little is known about its functioning in reptiles. Research on the snake SDN may provide important new insights, as snakes have a keen social perceptual system and express a relatively reduced repertoire of social behaviors. Here, we present the results of an experiment in which ball pythons (Python regius) interacted with a same-sex conspecific for one hour and neural activation was investigated through Fos immunoreactivity. Compared to controls, snakes that interacted socially had higher Fos counts in brain areas implicated in social behavior across taxa, such as the medial amygdala, preoptic area, nucleus accumbens, and basolateral amygdala. Additionally, we found differential Fos immunoreactivity in the ventral amygdala, which facilitates communication between social brain areas. In many of these areas, Fos counts differed by sex, which may be due to increased competition between males. Fos counts did not differ in early sensory (i.e., vomeronasal) processing structures. As ball pyth...

Source: Behavioural Brain Research - March 24, 2024 Category: Neurology Authors: Morgan Skinner Dania Daanish Chelsey Damphousse Randolph W Krohmer Paul Mallet Bruce McKay Noam Miller Source Type: research