Different social experiences drive the development of divergent stress coping styles in female swordtails (Xiphophorus nigrensis).

Individual variation in stress coping styles is widespread and consequential to health and fitness. Proactive (bold behavior, low stress reactivity, low cognitive flexibility) and reactive (shy behavior, high stress reactivity, high cognitive flexibility) coping styles are found in many species, but the developmental forces shaping them remain elusive. We examined how social influences, specifically mating interactions, shape the development of adult female coping styles with a manipulative rearing experiment using El Abra swordtails, Xiphophorus nigrensis.

Sex differences in cognitive performance and style across domains in mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis).

Given that the sexes often differ in their ecological and sexual selection pressures, sex differences in cognitive properties are likely. While research on sexually dimorphic cognition often focuses on performance, it commonly overlooks how sexes diverge across cognitive domains and in behaviors exhibited during a cognitive task (cognitive style). We tested male and female western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) in three cognitive tasks: associative learning (numerical discrimination), cognitive flexibility (detour task), and spatio-temporal learning (shuttlebox).

Isotocin increases female avoidance of males in a coercive mating system: Assessing the social salience hypothesis of oxytocin in a fish species.

The nonapeptide oxytocin (and its fish homolog isotocin (IT)) is an evolutionarily-conserved hormone associated with social behaviors across most vertebrate taxa. Oxytocin has traditionally been regarded as a prosocial hormone, but studies on social cognition in mammalian models suggest it may play a more nuanced role in modulating social discrimination based on social salience and stimulus valence. Here we test IT and its role in regulating female social decision-making and anxiety behaviors in a live-bearing fish with a male coercive mating system.

Differential sensitivity to estrogen-induced opsin expression in two poeciliid freshwater fish species.

The sensory system shapes an individual's perception of the world, including social interactions with conspecifics, habitat selection, predator detection, and foraging behavior. Sensory signaling can be modulated by steroid hormones, making these processes particularly vulnerable to environmental perturbations. Here we examine the influence of exogenous estrogen manipulation on the visual physiology of female western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) and sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna), two poeciliid species that inhabit freshwater environments across the southern United States.

Testing synaptic plasticity in dynamic mate choice decisions: N-methyl D-aspartate receptor blockade disrupts female preference.

Social behaviours such as mate choice require context-specific responses, often with evolutionary consequences. Increasing evidence indicates that the behavioural plasticity associated with mate choice involves learning. For example, poeciliids show age-dependent changes in female preference functions and express synaptic-plasticity-associated molecular markers during mate choice.

Localizing brain regions associated with female mate preference behavior in a swordtail.

Female mate choice behavior is a critical component of sexual selection, yet identifying the neural basis of this behavior is largely unresolved. Previous studies have implicated sensory processing and hypothalamic brain regions during female mate choice and there is a conserved network of brain regions (Social Behavior Network, SBN) that underlies sexual behaviors. However, we are only beginning to understand the role this network has in pre-copulatory female mate choice.

Identifying context-specific gene profiles of social, reproductive, and mate preference behavior in a fish species with female mate choice.

Sensory and social inputs interact with underlying gene suites to coordinate social behavior. Here we use a naturally complex system in sexual selection studies, the swordtail, to explore how genes associated with mate preference, receptivity, and social affiliation interact in the female brain under specific social conditions. We focused on 11 genes associated with mate preference in this species (neuroserpin, neuroligin-3, NMDA receptor, tPA, stathmin-2, β-1 adrenergic receptor) or with female sociosexual behaviors in other taxa (vasotocin, isotocin, brain aromatase, α-1 adrenergic receptor, tyrosine hydroxylase).

Estradiol, reproductive cycle and preference behavior in a northern swordtail.

Estrogen is associated with female sexual behaviors, particularly receptive behaviors during the reproductive cycle. Less is known about the relationship between estrogen and female preference behaviors that may precede receptivity and copulation. Separating the mechanisms underlying preference from receptivity is often confounded by the tightly coupled cycle- or estrogen-dependent expression of female sexual behaviors.

Steroid signaling and temperature-dependent sex determination-Reviewing the evidence for early action of estrogen during ovarian determination in turtles.

The developmental processes underlying gonadal differentiation are conserved across vertebrates, but the triggers initiating these trajectories are extremely variable. The red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans) exhibits temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), a system where incubation temperature during a temperature-sensitive period of development determines offspring sex. However, gonadal sex is sensitive to both temperature and hormones during this period-particularly estrogen.

Accumulation of radiocesium by mushrooms in the environment: a literature review.

During the last 50 years, a large amount of information on radionuclide accumulators or "sentinel-type" organisms in the environment has been published. Much of this work focused on the risks of food-chain transfer of radionuclides to higher organisms such as reindeer and man. Until the 1980s and 1990s, there were few published data on the radiocesium ((134)Cs and (137)Cs) accumulation by mushrooms.

Sexual and social stimuli elicit rapid and contrasting genomic responses.

Sensory physiology has been shown to influence female mate choice, yet little is known about the mechanisms within the brain that regulate this critical behaviour. Here we examine preference behaviour of 58 female swordtails, Xiphophorus nigrensis, in four different social environments (attractive and unattractive males, females only, non-attractive males only and asocial conditions) followed by neural gene expression profiling. We used a brain-specific cDNA microarray to identify patterns of genomic response and candidate genes, followed by quantitative PCR (qPCR) examination of gene expression with variation in behaviour.

Learning effects on sperm competition and reproductive fitness.

Learning and other common psychological processes presumably evolved because they contribute to reproductive fitness, but reproductive outcomes are rarely measured in psychology experiments. We examined the effects of Pavlovian conditioning on reproductive fitness in a sperm-competition situation. Typically, two males mating with the same female in immediate succession sire similar numbers of offspring.

Adrenal-kidney-gonad complex measurements may not predict gonad-specific changes in gene expression patterns during temperature-dependent sex determination in the red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans).

Many turtles, including the red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans) have temperature-dependent sex determination in which gonadal sex is determined by temperature during the middle third of incubation. The gonad develops as part of a heterogenous tissue complex that comprises the developing adrenal, kidney, and gonad (AKG complex). Owing to the difficulty in excising the gonad from the adjacent tissues, the AKG complex is often used as tissue source in assays examining gene expression in the developing gonad.

Gonadal expression of Sf1 and aromatase during sex determination in the red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta), a reptile with temperature-dependent sex determination.

Many egg-laying reptiles have temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), where the offspring sex is determined by incubation temperature during a temperature-sensitive period (TSP) in the middle third of development. The underlying mechanism transducing a temperature cue into an ovary or testis is unknown, but it is known that steroid hormones play an important role. During the TSP, exogenous application of estrogen can override a temperature cue and produce females, while blocking the activity of aromatase (Cyp19a1), the enzyme that converts testosterone to estradiol, produces males from a female-biased temperature.

Overlooking the obvious: a meta-analytic comparison of digit symbol coding tasks and other cognitive measures in schizophrenia.

Context: In focusing on potentially localizable cognitive impairments, the schizophrenia meta-analytic literature has overlooked the largest single impairment: on digit symbol coding tasks.

Objective: To compare the magnitude of the schizophrenia impairment on coding tasks with impairments on other traditional neuropsychological instruments.

Data Sources: MEDLINE and PsycINFO electronic databases and reference lists from identified articles.

Expression of Sox9, Mis, and Dmrt1 in the gonad of a species with temperature-dependent sex determination.

Sex determination in vertebrates, the process of forming an ovary or testis from a bipotential gonad, can be initiated by genetic or environmental factors. Elements of the downstream molecular pathways underlying these different sex-determining mechanisms have been evolutionarily conserved. We find the first evidence that Sox9 expression is preferentially organized in the testis early in the temperature-sensitive period in a species with temperature-dependent sex determination (Trachemys scripta).