The Social Preference circuit
How can we study 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 similar to humans. Here an example of a social fish (Dreosti et al. 2015).
What are the social brain areas?
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).
Are fish affected by social isolation?
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).