Summary: A new study provides significant insights into how animals, specifically three-spined stickleback fish, make decisions under competing demands. The study explored the fishs behaviors during the breeding season, where males must simultaneously defend territory, court females, and care for offspring.
By exposing male sticklebacks to various stimuli and analyzing their behavioral responses and brain gene expression, the researchers discovered a complex interaction between territorial defense and courtship, with some prioritizing defense.
This research not only sheds light on animal decision-making processes but also suggests ancient mechanisms driving complex decision-making across many taxa.
Key Facts:
Source: University of Illinois
How do animals make decisions when faced with competing demands, and how have decision making processes evolved over time?
In a recent publication in Biology Letters, Tina Barbasch, a postdoctoral researcher at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, and Alison Bell (GNDP), a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, explored these questions using three-spined stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus).
Whether you are in school, working, raising children, managing a social life, or just trying to relax for a moment, managing multiple responsibilities at once can quickly become overwhelming. You may find yourself wondering how much simpler life would be if you were a fish floating along a river or a hawk soaring through the sky.
Yet, animals also face the burdens of multitasking, whether it be searching for their next meal while avoiding becoming someone elses next meal or attracting a mate while defending their territory.
During my PhD, I studied parental care in clownfish, and how they decide how much care to provide for their offspring, says Barbasch.
This requires the integration of many sources of social and environmental information. Recently, I have become interested in understanding the mechanisms underlying how animals make decisions and integrate different sources of information.
Despite the importance of decision making for an animals fitness, the mechanisms that shape decision-making are not well understood. Stickleback are a powerful model for investigating these questions because of their complex life history and reproductive behavior.
During the breeding season, male sticklebacks establish territories to build nests to attract females. Males must simultaneously defend their territories from other males, court females that enter their territory with performative swimming motions, called zig-zags, and ultimately provide care for offspring if they can successfully court a female.
This study was inspired by an experiment where we looked at brain gene expression in male three-spined stickleback during parental care or when defending their territory, explained Bell.
We found that the same genes were involved in both experiments, but in opposite directions genes turned on in one condition were turned off in the other. This idea that the brain might be using the same molecular machinery, but in opposite ways, could have major implications for the evolution of decision making.
To explore the underlying molecular mechanisms of decision making, Barbasch exposed male stickleback to one of three stimuli: a female stickleback (courtship treatment); another male stickleback (territorial intruder treatment), or both a male and female stickleback (trade-off treatment).
Some male stickleback were left alone as a control. Aggressive behaviors (biting) and courtship behaviors (zig-zags) were quantified, and then the brains of the male stickleback were dissected to look at gene expression using RNA sequencing.
Barbasch found that, when faced with a trade-off, males generally prioritized territorial defense over courtship. There was also substantial variation across males in how they responded, suggesting that there might be different strategies that males employ when faced with a trade-off.
Furthermore, the gene expression results identified groups of genes that were differentially expressed across each of the experimental treatments relative to a control. Of particular interest are the genes that are only present in the trade-off treatment, because they suggest that males have a unique molecular response when faced with conflicting demands.
We performed gene ontology analysis on these trade-off genes to look into what the identity and function of these genes might be, describes Barbasch. Preliminary results suggest the trade-off genes may be related to the dopamine response pathway, which modulates reward and motivation in the brain, or neurogenesis, which is important for cognition.
Ultimately, these findings highlight the importance of exploring the molecular basis of animal behavior, as Bell outlines. Animals are living really complicated lives, across many taxa. This suggests that the mechanisms that are driving complex decision-making are probably really ancient and animals have been managing complex decisions for a long time.
Barbaschs study also sets the foundation for a wide range of exciting follow-up studies. She has already started to explore the behavioral and molecular responses by stickleback to other trade-offs including those involving predation risk, foraging, and parental care.
She also plans on expanding her molecular toolkit by quantifying gene expression in finer detail using single-cell RNA sequencing and weighted gene co-expression network analysis, which helps capture gene function by identifying networks of genes with related patterns of expression.
So, the next time you notice an animal doing something, think a bit deeper about their day-to-day life, and how they are finding a way to manage all their responsibilities.
Author: Nicholas Vasi Source: University of Illinois Contact: Nicholas Vasi University of Illinois Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access. A distinct neurogenomic response to a trade-off between social challenge and opportunity in male sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) by Alison Bell et al. Biology Letters
Abstract
A distinct neurogenomic response to a trade-off between social challenge and opportunity in male sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
Animals frequently make adaptive decisions about what to prioritize when faced with multiple, competing demands simultaneously.
However, the proximate mechanisms of decision-making in the face of competing demands are not well understood.
We explored this question using brain transcriptomics in a classic model system: threespined sticklebacks, where males face conflict between courtship and territorial defence. We characterized the behaviour and brain gene expression profiles of males confronted by a trade-off between courtship and territorial defence by comparing them to males not confronted by this trade-off.
When faced with the trade-off, males behaviourally prioritized defence over courtship, and this decision was reflected in their brain gene expression profiles. A distinct set of genes and biological processes was recruited in the brain when males faced a trade-off and these responses were largely non-overlapping across two brain regions.
Combined, these results raise new questions about the interplay between the neural and molecular mechanisms involved in decision-making.
See the original post:
Stickleback Fish Reveal Insights into Animal Decision-Making - Neuroscience News
- Marcus Neuroscience Institute to Host Brain and Spine Symposium - South Florida Hospital News - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- Elon University to launch neuroscience major in fall 2025 - Today at Elon - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- The brains stalwart sentinels express an unexpected gene - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- Video catches microglia in the act of synaptic pruning - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- Null and Noteworthy: Reexamining registered reports - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- Accepting the bitter lesson and embracing the brains complexity - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- NIH neurodevelopmental assessment system now available as iPad app - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- Stronger Bonds Before Birth Shape Healthier Mother-Child Futures - Neuroscience News - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- How Emotionally Intelligent People Learn to Control Their Inner Voice, Backed by Neuroscience - Inc. - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- Gabriele Scheler reflects on the interplay between language, thought and AI - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- Worlds first crowd-sourced neuroscience study aims to understand how our brains predict the future - EurekAlert - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- Rewriting Neuroscience: Possible Foundations of Human Intelligence Observed for the First Time - SciTechDaily - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- Calculating neurosciences carbon cost: Q&A with Stefan Pulver and William Smith - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- The future of neuroscience research at U.S. minority-serving institutions is in danger - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- Dopamine and social media: Why you cant stop scrolling, according to neuroscience - PsyPost - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- Neuroscience Discovered a Clever Trick for Squeezing More Joy Out of Everyday Pleasures - Inc. - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- The limits of neuroscience - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- BPOM Explains The Benefits Of Fasting From The Health And Neuroscience Side - VOI English - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- How tiny tardigrades could help tackle systems neuroscience questions - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- Alison Preston explains how our brains form mental frameworks for interpreting the world - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- The Mystical Mind Meets Neuroscience: Seeking the Roots of Consciousness - Next Big Idea Club Magazine - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- Myosin Therapeutics Closes Second Seed Round to Advance Clinical Trials for Innovative Cancer and Neuroscience Therapies - PR Newswire - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Neuroscience Ph.D. programs adjust admissions in response to U.S. funding uncertainty - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- New tools help make neuroimaging accessible to more researchers - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Future Thinking Training Reduces Impulsivity - Neuroscience News - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Null and Noteworthy, relaunched: Probing a schizophrenia biomarker - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- How to communicate the value of curiosity-driven research - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Cognitive neuroscience approach to explore the impact of wind turbine noise on various mental functions - Nature.com - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Football on the Brain: Helping coaches embed neuroscience knowledge - Training Ground Guru - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Taking Control: Using Neuroscience to Build Better Lives - theLoop - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Creating a pipeline of talent to feed the growth of Neuroscience: Lessons from Ghana - Myjoyonline - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Exclusive: NIH appears to archive policy requiring female animals in studies - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Roll On Down The Highway 2025 Tour coming to Neuroscience Group Field - WeAreGreenBay.com - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- STEM organizations host Neuroscience Outreach Fair for local K-12 students - University of Virginia The Cavalier Daily - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Adapt or die: Safeguarding the future of diversity and inclusion funding in neuroscience - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- The last two-author neuroscience paper? - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Gate Neurosciences Strengthens Focus on the Synapse as a Therapeutic Target with Acquisition of Boost Neuroscience - Business Wire - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Why Firefly Neuroscience, Inc. (AIFF) Is Soaring This Year So Far - Yahoo Finance - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Breaking the barrier between theorists and experimentalists - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Preserving Brain Health and Advancing Neuroscience - University of Miami - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Science must step away from nationally managed infrastructure - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Repurposed Blood Pressure Drug May Treat ADHD - Neuroscience News - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- How to teach students about science funding - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Reflecting on 2024: Advancing Neuroscience Research to Improve Neurological Health - National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Brains Hidden Circuitry for Risk and Reward Uncovered - Neuroscience News - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Why We Keep Exploring Even After Learning the Best Strategy - Neuroscience News - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Unlocking Cellular Youth: The Protein That Reverses Aging - Neuroscience News - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- This paper changed my Life: Bill Newsome reflects on a quadrilogy of classic visual perception studies - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and... - February 25th, 2025 [February 25th, 2025]
- Roundup: The false association between vaccines and autism - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- Static pay, shrinking prospects fuel neuroscience postdoc decline - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- Stimulating the brain with Damien Fair - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- Unhealthy Diet Linked to Faster Biological Aging in Young Adults - Neuroscience News - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- Bob Smittcamp Family Neuroscience Institute coming to Fresno in 2026 - ABC30 News - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- Norton Neuroscience Institute selected to pilot national Brain Health Navigator program - Norton Healthcare - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- Coding bonus: Bats hippocampal cells log spatial, social cues - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- ADHD and brainwaves: How neuroscience is changing the way we diagnose the condition - PsyPost - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- David Robbe challenges conventional notions of time and memory - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- How the Brain Processes Space and Time - Neuroscience News - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- Using neuroscience to help establish healthier habits | Opinion - South Bend Tribune - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- Solvonis chairman on heavy-hitting M&A in neuroscience sector - ICYMI - Proactive Investors UK - February 3rd, 2025 [February 3rd, 2025]
- New neuroscience research sheds light on distinct patterns of learning and generalization in autistic adults - PsyPost - January 23rd, 2025 [January 23rd, 2025]
- Neuroscientists need to do better at explaining basic mental health research - The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives - January 23rd, 2025 [January 23rd, 2025]
- How Severance shows the possibilities of cognitive neuroscience - Fast Company - January 23rd, 2025 [January 23rd, 2025]
- AdventHealth Welcomes New Leadership In Heart and Vascular Services, Neuroscience and Orthopedics - Northwest Georgia News - January 23rd, 2025 [January 23rd, 2025]
- School of Neuroscience and Language Sciences Program recognized with University Exemplary Department or Program Award - Virginia Tech - January 23rd, 2025 [January 23rd, 2025]
- Early Exposure to Violent Media Linked to Teen Antisocial Behavior - Neuroscience News - January 23rd, 2025 [January 23rd, 2025]
- The Real Cognitive Neuroscience Behind Severance - WIRED - January 23rd, 2025 [January 23rd, 2025]
- The 15 most popular psychology and neuroscience studies in 2024 - PsyPost - January 1st, 2025 [January 1st, 2025]
- The 'lizard brain' lie: How neuroscience demolished the greatest mind myth - BBC Science Focus - January 1st, 2025 [January 1st, 2025]
- Revolutionizing Brain Diagnostics with Light and AI - Neuroscience News - January 1st, 2025 [January 1st, 2025]
- How Early Experiences Shape Genes, Brain Health, and Resilience - Neuroscience News - January 1st, 2025 [January 1st, 2025]
- A nation exhausted: The neuroscience of why Americans are tuning out political news - Indiana Capital Chronicle - January 1st, 2025 [January 1st, 2025]
- Lithium Restores Brain Function and Behavior in Autism - Neuroscience News - January 1st, 2025 [January 1st, 2025]
- Partners in Diversity presents the science of belonging: exploring the neuroscience of inclusion - Here is Oregon - January 1st, 2025 [January 1st, 2025]
- Classical vs. Operant Conditioning: The Brain's Memory Tug-of-War - Neuroscience News - January 1st, 2025 [January 1st, 2025]
- The Personality Gap Between Singles and the Partnered - Neuroscience News - January 1st, 2025 [January 1st, 2025]
- The Neuroscience Behind Vermeers Girl and Its Hypnotic Power - ZME Science - January 1st, 2025 [January 1st, 2025]
- Serotonin, GABA, and Dopamine Drive Hunger and Feeding - Neuroscience News - December 23rd, 2024 [December 23rd, 2024]
- A nation exhausted: The neuroscience of why Americans are tuning out politics - The Conversation - December 23rd, 2024 [December 23rd, 2024]
- UNO Goalie and Neuroscience Grad Shines in Her Athletic and Academic Aspirations - University of Nebraska Omaha - December 23rd, 2024 [December 23rd, 2024]