Social animals detect the affective states of conspecifics and utilize this information to orchestrate social interactions. In a social affective preference text in which experimental adult male rats could interact with either naive or stressed conspecifics, the experimental rats either approached or avoided the stressed conspecific, depending upon the age of the conspecific. Specifically, experimental rats approached stressed juveniles but avoided stressed adults. Inhibition of insular cortex, which is implicated in social cognition, and blockade of insular oxytocin receptors disrupted the social affective behaviors. Oxytocin application increased intrinsic excitability and synaptic efficacy in acute insular cortex slices, and insular oxytocin administration recapitulated the behaviors observed toward stressed conspecifics. Network analysis of c-Fos immunoreactivity in 29 regions identified functional connectivity between insular cortex, prefrontal cortex, amygdala and the social decision-making network. These results implicate insular cortex as a key component in the circuit underlying age-dependent social responses to stressed conspecifics.Determining how to respond to others in distress is central to social cognition. In a new model, male rats approach stressed juveniles but avoid stressed adults; these behaviors require excitatory action of oxytocin within the insular cortex.
Insular Cortex Mediates Approach and Avoidance Responses to Social Affective Stimuli
Morgan M. Rogers-Carter,J. A. Varela,K. B. Gribbons,Anne F. Pierce,Morgan T. McGoey,Maureen Ritchey,J. Christianson
Published 2017 in bioRxiv
ABSTRACT
PUBLICATION RECORD
- Publication year
2017
- Venue
bioRxiv
- Publication date
2017-04-21
- Fields of study
Biology, Medicine, Psychology
- Identifiers
- External record
- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
CITATION MAP
EXTRACTION MAP
CLAIMS
- No claims are published for this paper.
CONCEPTS
- No concepts are published for this paper.