The social brain
Why our brains are so wired to be social ?
We constantly crave for other people
We spend most of our lives interacting with people.
We are deeply affected by people’s actions and words.
The social preference circuit
It is still not known what are the brain areas that process social information. Our lab is interested in understanding:
What are the brain areas involved in processing social stimuli/cues?
How do these areas develop over time?
How can environmenet and genes alter the circuit?
Can social responses be modulated by other sensory systems?
Juvenile zebrafish swimming
Zebrafish are social animals; they swim and shoal together all the time when they are adults. However, they are not social when they are larvae. Our lab discovered that social preference develops over time within the first 3 weeks. This is a unique opportunity not possible with any other social animal so far. It allows to follow the anatomical and functional development of social areas in vivo with a single cell resolution, and to observe what happens when something goes wroong (Dreosti et al. 2015).
Zebrafish show strong social preference
We have developped a behavioural assay to study a fundamental social behaviour present in all social animals, social preference. This is the ability of an animal to identify someone of its own species, move towards it, and get reward (Dreosti et al. 2015). We found that juvenile zebrafish show a spectrum of social preference like in humans. Here an example of a social fish (Dresoti et al. 2015).
Neuronal activity in social fish
We have developped a preparation to image the brain areas activated upon social preference in the whole brain with a single cell resolution. We have found that during social preference the preoptic and hypotalamic areas are strongly activated (Tunbak et al. 2020).
Socially isolated fish
Early social isolation during development affects heavily the behaviour of social animals including humans. We have found that long and short amounts of social deprivation cause changes in social preference as well as in brain activity (Tunbak et al. 2020).
The Nociception system
We are interested in understanding how zebrafish process noxious sensory stimuli from the periphery to the higher centers of the brain. This is extremely difficult to do in other species becasue it is technically challenging. In addtion, we want to understand how the nociception circuit is interconnected with the social circuit and how they can be modulated.
Adaptive behaviour
What are the brain areas that allow zebrafish to be able to adapt to changes in the environemnt? One main candidate is the telencephalon (the cortex in humans).
Juvenile zebrafish are social
Adult zebrafish are social animals, but not larvae. Our lab discovered that social preference develops over time within the first 3 weeks. This allows us to follow the anatomical and functional development of all the social areas in vivo with a single cell resolution, and to understand what happens when something goes wroong during development (Dreosti et al. 2015).
Social preference, a proxy for anatomical and functional changes
We have developped a behavioural assay to study a fundamental social behaviour present in all social animals, social preference. This is the ability of an animal to identify someone of its own species, move towards it, and get reward (Dreosti et al. 2015). We found that juvenile zebrafish show a spectrum of social preference like in humans. Here an example of a social fish (Dresoti et al. 2015).
Early social isolation during development affects heavily the behaviour of social animals including humans. We have found that long and short amounts of social deprivation cause changes in social preference as well as in brain activity (Tunbak et al. 2020).
Neuronal activity in social fish
We have developped a preparation to image the brain areas activated upon social preference in the whole brain with a single cell resolution. We have found that during social preference the preoptic and hypotalamic areas are strongly activated (Tunbak et al. 2020).