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Metabolism of Brain Serotonin during Agonistic Interaction in Wildtype and Albino Paradise Fish (Macropodus opercularis)

1. Institute of Marine Biology, National Sun Yat-sen University
2. Department of Biology, National Changhua University of Education
Abstract
Brain serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) generally serves an inhibitory role in aggressive behavior. But little is known about how 5-HT works during agonistic interaction and where the related works take place in the brain. Paradise fish has regular and ritual process of agonistic interaction which can be separated into three phases, namely, initial phase, threatening phase, and fighting phase. In initial phase, two fish encounter and swim close to each other. In threatening phase, two fish display shaking, head-tail swimming to threat their opponent. In fighting phase, two fish bite each other. With its stereotyped pattern of agonistic behaviors and amenability for pharmacological manipulation, paradise fish represents an excellent model for studies on neurochemical basis of aggressive behaviors. The results suggested that proper visual stimulus stemming from the interacting opponents elicits a socially stressful state that activates the telencephalic serotonergic system of the receipting paradise fish. The elevated serotonergic activity appears to inhibit the interacting individuals from entering fighting phase by constraining them to threatening phase. Presumably, diminishing activity of the telencephalic serotonergic system ushers in physical fighting behaviors.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0801103-053539
Date01 August 2003
CreatorsWu, Wei-Li
ContributorsChen-Chih Kao, Alice Y.W Chang, Chi-Ying Lee, Hin-Kiu Mok
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0801103-053539
Rightsnot_available, Copyright information available at source archive

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