Beyond sex and aggression: testosterone rapidly matches behavioural responses to social context and tries to predict the future

Abstract

Although androgens are widely studied in the context of aggression, androgenic influences on prosocial behaviours have been less explored. We examined testosterone's (T) influence on prosocial and aggressive responses in a positively valenced social context (interacting with a pairbond partner) and a negatively valenced context (interacting with an intruder) in socially monogamous Mongolian gerbils. T increased and decreased prosocial responses in the same individuals towards a pairbond partner and an intruder, respectively, both within 30 min, but did not affect aggression. T also had persistent effects on prosocial behaviour; males in which T initially increased prosocial responses towards a partner continued to exhibit elevated prosocial responses towards an intruder male days later until a second T injection rapidly eliminated those responses. Thus, T surges can rapidly match behaviour to current social context, as well as prime animals for positive social interactions in the future. Neuroanatomically, T rapidly increased hypothalamic oxytocin, but not vasopressin, cellular responses during interactions with a partner. Together, our results indicate that T can facilitate and inhibit prosocial behaviours depending on social context, that it can influence prosocial responses across rapid and prolonged time scales, and that it affects oxytocin signalling mechanisms that could mediate its context-dependent behavioural influences.

The Predictive Value of Monocyte/High-Density Lipoprotein Ratio (MHR) and Positive Symptom Scores for Aggression in Patients with Schizophrenia

“…However, in this study, the levels of hormones were not measured. Nevertheless, studies in Mongolian gerbils have shown that androgens can alter pro-social responses over both short- and long-term periods, promoting or inhibiting pro-social behavior depending on the social situation, but not affecting aggression [ 76 ].…”

Social rank-dependent effects of testosterone on huddling strategies in mice

“… 30 , 54 , 55 , 56 In a recent animal study, exogenous T treatment rapidly increased prosocial behavior toward mates and intruders in specific social contexts. 50 Therefore, we speculate that serum T levels may actively promote individual huddling behavior under appropriate circumstances. It is worth noting that the T level only has an indicative effect on the indicators related to the triplet huddling strategy.…”

“… 26 And T treatment rapidly activates oxytocin neurons in the paraventricular nucleus to promote active social interaction through non-genetic pathways. 50 Therefore the dual effects of T treatment on huddling strategies under different conditions may involve steroid and non-peptide interactions in the nervous system; future studies could explore this further specifically. Since the short-term effects manifested by exogenous T injection in our experiments involved the activation of non-genomic mechanisms and did not involve transcription and translation of DNA, and the exogenous T treatment in our experiment is a physiological dose, which will produce a T pulse similar to that in the natural state.…”

“…Since the short-term effects manifested by exogenous T injection in our experiments involved the activation of non-genomic mechanisms and did not involve transcription and translation of DNA, and the exogenous T treatment in our experiment is a physiological dose, which will produce a T pulse similar to that in the natural state. 50 , 87 The exogenous T will be quickly degraded and inactivated by the liver and other organs. 50 , 87 The body does not maintain high T levels for long.…”

“… 42 , 43 , 44 T, in particular, which increased in response to sexual or aggressive stimuli, 40 , 45 can rapidly stimulate sexual and aggressive behavior in males. 44 , 45 , 46 Furthermore, T promotes positive social responses in specific social contexts, 47 , 48 , 49 and through non-genomic mechanisms increases the neuroreactivity of diverse neuronal populations in the hypothalamus that execute adaptive social responses to external stimuli 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ; studies have shown that salivary and serum T levels were negatively associated with social withdrawal symptoms. 30 , 54 , 55 , 56 Thus, we proposed that there is a strong association between T and the huddling behavior, and investigating the effect of T on the huddling strategies of individuals of different social ranks is of great value in the treatment of social withdrawal in mental illness.…”