Acute stress modulates social approach and social maintenance in adult zebrafish

Abstract

Stress alters social functioning in a complex manner. An important variable determining the final effects of stress is stressor intensity. However, the precise relationship between stressor intensity and social behavior is not well understood. Here we investigate the effects of varying acute stressor intensity exposure on social behavior using adult zebrafish. We first establish a novel test using adult zebrafish that allows distinguishing fish's drive to approach a social cue and its ability to engage and maintain social interaction within the same behavioral paradigm. Next, we combined this test with a new method to deliver an acute stress stimulus or varying intensities. Our results show that both social approach and social maintenance are reduced in adult zebrafish upon acute stress exposure in an intensity-dependent manner. Interestingly, lower stress intensity reduces social maintenance without affecting the social approach, while a higher stress level is required to alter social approach. These results provide evidence for a direct correlation between acute stressor intensity and social functioning and suggest that distinct steps in social behavior are modulate differentially by the acute stress level.

Lifelong molecular consequences of high Glucocorticoids exposure during development

“…This outcome further supports the findings in the fear conditioning assay, that bPAC+ fish may possess dysfunctional fear processing and/or novelty adaption mechanisms. bPAC+ fish exhibited a reduction in the maintenance of social interactions in the absence of social recognition or approach deficits using our new social approach and maintenance assay 22 . Both a reduction in the time spent in the interaction zone and the number of interactions performed by bPAC+ fish were observed.…”

“…bPAC+ fish exhibited a reduction in the maintenance of social interactions in the absence of social recognition or approach deficits using our new social approach and maintenance assay 22 . Both a reduction in the time spent in the interaction zone and the number of interactions performed by bPAC+ fish were observed.…”

“…To assess social behavior, we employed a new test that we recently established, which allows assessment of different phases of social behavior, namely a drive to approach a social cue, plus an ability to engage and maintain social interaction (Fig. 2a) 16 . After the fish was placed in a test tank and before the presentation of conspecifics, wild type, bPAC- and bPAC+ all displayed an immediate and spontaneous preference for the blue-colored bottom zone with no significant genotype differences (Supplementary Figs.…”

“…Social behavior tests and LD (looming dot) presentation were carried out as described in Cook et al, 2023 16 . For all behavioral tests, female adult zebrafish (6-9 months old) were moved into a designated behavior experimental room one week prior to testing and housed in groups of 10 fish in a 3L tank.…”

“…To assess whether high GC exposure during development affects the stress response in adulthood, we subjected wild-type, bPAC+, and bPAC-fish to a looming dot stimulus (LD), which mimics an approaching predator 16 (Fig. 4a, Supplementary Fig.…”