Meeting Abstract
During social interactions, the brain integrates current events with previous memories and predictions about future outcomes in order to respond in a context-appropriate manner. Animals are tasked with expressing context-appropriate behavior in complex social hierarchies that can undergo dynamic changes depending on group composition and individual experience. These interactions induce neuronal and physiological responses in individuals that impact their subsequent learning and decision-making. Here we examine the neurobiological correlates mediating learning in a dynamic social context in groups of the social cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni. We first assayed the behavioral response of social groups to a simple association task with an informed individual either present or absent, and quantified how informant behavior affects the group response rate. To identify the neural substrates that mediate learning across social contexts, we analyzed the induction of the immediate-early gene cFos in candidate brain regions known to play a role in social decision-making and learning and memory. We find that the presence of an informant greatly facilitates group response, independent of the social status of the informant. We also find that patterns of neural activity vary according to social context rather than an individual’s social status. By combining behavioral observations of social groups before and during learning with examinations of the underlying neurobiological correlates, our research provides novel insights into the neural substrates that regulate learning within dynamic social groups.
