Abstract
People in a social group often have to make decisions under conflict, for instance, to conform to the group or obey authority (subjects at higher social rank in the group). The neural mechanisms underlying how social group setting affects decision-making have largely remained unclear. In this study, we designed novel behavioral tests using food access priority and fear conditioning paradigms that captured decision-making under conflict associated with social group environments in mice and examined the roles of serotonin (5-HT) on these processes. Using these behavioral tests, administration of the selective 5-HT reuptake inhibitor, which increased 5-HT transmission, was found to attenuate conflicts in decision-making that may be associated with human cases of social obedience and conformity in mice under group housing. The results suggest that 5-HT plays important roles in the regulation of individual behaviors that organize social group dynamics.
Highlights
Decision-making involves cognitive and affective processes in selecting actions over other available, alternative choices to achieve goals
Using these behavioral tests, we examined, as a first step of unveiling the neural mechanisms of decision-making under conflict in a social group, the role of 5-HT on decision-making under conflict that may be associated with social conformity and obedience by pharmacological manipulation of 5-HT transmission with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) administration. 5-HT transmission was examined in this study since it was the most promising target, based on previous studies showing that 5-HT is involved in social aspects of decision-making[6,7]
Locomotor distance of test subjects was not different between when they were placed with higher-food access priority (FAP) and lower-FAP opponents. These results suggest that mice render decision-making under conflict that may be associated with obedience to authority in reward seeking when they are in social group environments, and 5-HT transmission may play a role in such decision making under conflict associated with social hierarchy
Summary
Decision-making involves cognitive and affective processes in selecting actions over other available, alternative choices to achieve goals. Milgram conducted a famous psychological study showing that people make decisions under conflict regarding obedience to authority[13], such that hierarchy in a social group yields substantial impacts on decision-making processes. We examined social obedience-like behavior in rodents as reward access priority that follows the hierarchical structure of social groups, whereas social conformity-like behavior was examined as propagation of a specific behavior from individuals demonstrating such behavior to those not showing it in relation to the proportion of demonstrating individuals within social groups Using these behavioral tests, we examined, as a first step of unveiling the neural mechanisms of decision-making under conflict in a social group, the role of 5-HT on decision-making under conflict that may be associated with social conformity and obedience by pharmacological manipulation of 5-HT transmission with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) administration. Using these behavioral tests, we examined, as a first step of unveiling the neural mechanisms of decision-making under conflict in a social group, the role of 5-HT on decision-making under conflict that may be associated with social conformity and obedience by pharmacological manipulation of 5-HT transmission with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) administration. 5-HT transmission was examined in this study since it was the most promising target, based on previous studies showing that 5-HT is involved in social aspects of decision-making[6,7]
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