Neural activation following offensive aggression in Japanese quail.

Cornelia Voigt,Katharina Hirschenhauser,Stefan Leitner

doi:10.1242/bio.038026

Abstract

ABSTRACTAggression is a fundamental part of animal social behaviour. In avian species, little is known about its neural representation. In particular, neural activity following offensive aggression has not been studied in detail. Here, we investigated the patterns of brain activation using immediate-early gene (IEG) expression in male Japanese quail that showed pronounced aggressive behaviours during a 30 min male–male interaction and compared them to those of males that did not interact with a conspecific. In aggressive males, we found a massive induction of the IEG ZENK in pallial brain structures such as the intermediate medial mesopallium, the caudomedial mesopallium and the intermediate medial nidopallium. To a lesser extent, activation was observed in subpallial areas such as the nucleus taeniae of the amygdala and in the medial portion of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. Our data suggest that the modulation of aggressive behaviour involves the integration of multisensory information.

Highlights

Agonistic behaviour constitutes a key component of vertebrate societies and it comprises all instances of attack, threat, defence, escape and submission (Szekely et al, 2010)
The major finding of our study is the pronounced activation of pallial brain areas following the performance of offensive aggressive behaviours
Induction of immediate-early gene (IEG) gene and/or protein expression in the avian pallium has been previously detected in relation to a variety of different stimuli such as auditory perception (Mello and Clayton, 1994; Leitner et al, 2005; Terpstra et al, 2005), filial imprinting (Long et al, 2002; Thode et al, 2005), passive avoidance learning (Anokhin et al, 1991) and male sexual behaviour (Meddle et al, 1997; Tlemçani et al, 2000)

Summary

Introduction

Agonistic behaviour constitutes a key component of vertebrate societies and it comprises all instances of attack, threat, defence, escape and submission (Szekely et al, 2010). In freely moving Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos), aggressive reactions, i.e. directed attacks, could be elicited by stimulating the arcopallium and several areas of the hypothalamus, whereas escape reactions could primarily be elicited from diencephalic brain regions and the midbrain (Maley, 1969). Subsequent studies, employing a wide variety of techniques, have identified neural sites, which are activated by aggressive and by other social behaviours such as mating behaviour or parental behaviour. These findings led to the view that sexual, aggressive and other types of social behaviours are controlled by a common neural circuit of limbic brain structures called the social behaviour network (Newman, 1999).

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