Discipline: Mathematics & Statistics
Subcategory: STEM Research
Choongseok Park - North Carolina A&T State University
Co-Author(s): Sungwoo Ahn, Department of Mathematics, East Carolina University; Katie N. Clements, Faith Heagy, Thomas H. Miller, Fadi A. Issa, Department of Biology, East Carolina University
Understanding how social factors influence nervous system function is of great importance. Using zebrafish as a model system, we study how social relationship affects the neuromodulation of escape and swim circuits in zebrafish. One important neuromodulator is a dopamine, which is implicated in social regulation: aggression, depression, motivation, and motor activity. To investigate the role of dopaminergic pathway in regulating escape in dominant and subordinate animals we conducted a series of empirical experiments. We also constructed a neurocomputational model of the M-cell escape circuit. We found that dopamine modifies escape behavior in a social status-dependent manner through inhibitory interneurons. As illustrated in Korn and Faber [2], GABAergic neurons influence the Mauthner neurons through the lateral dendrite. Blocking GABA showed a significant decrease in subordinate sensitivity while blocking Glycine increased the dominant sensitivity. Our model also suggests the possible locations of dopamine receptors. Moreover, it suggests the relationship between GABA and Glycine in the Mauthner escape circuit.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): NSF 1700199
Faculty Advisor: None Listed,