Meeting Abstract
The experience of reproducing is one of the most important life history events for many organisms. Yet although there is a rich literature documenting the physiological and behavioral changes that organisms undergo during reproductive events and how this affects future reproduction, our understanding of how these changes influence behavior in other contexts is limited. Here, we investigate the effects of reproduction on aggression, exploration, and anti-predator behaviors across three populations of male Trinidadian guppies ( Poecilia reticulata). We additionally examined changes in neural activation in response to a model predator across experienced and virgin males. 24 hours after reproduction, males were less active, more cautious, and less aggressive than their virgin brothers, and showed greater neural activation in areas of the brain associated with fear. However, many of these behaviors returned to pre-reproduction levels after three or seven days. Our results suggest that reproduction alters behavior and neural activation over short timescales in Trinidadian guppies, providing insights into adult behavioral plasticity and how these changes may influence life histories and reproductive success.
