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Mohamadpour H, Farkhondeh Tale Navi F, Asgharian Asl F, Heysieattalab S, Shakeri E, Karami Isheqlou L. Exploring neural correlates of social dominance: Insights from behavioral, resting- state EEG, and ERP indices. Brain Cogn 2024; 178:106177. [PMID: 38749353 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2024.106177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2024] [Revised: 04/20/2024] [Accepted: 05/10/2024] [Indexed: 06/14/2024]
Abstract
Numerous studies have explored the concept of social dominance and its implications for leadership within the behavioral and cognitive sciences in recent years. The current study aims to address the gap regarding the neural correlates of social dominance by investigating the associations between psychological measures of social dominance and neural features among a sample of leaders. Thirty healthy male volunteers engaged in a monetary gambling task while their resting-state and task-based electroencephalography data were recorded. The results revealed a positive association between social dominance and resting-state beta oscillations in central electrodes. Furthermore, a negative association was observed between social dominance and task-based reaction time as well as the amplitude of the feedback-related negativity component of the event-related potentials during the gain, but not the loss condition. These findings suggest that social dominance is associated with enhanced reward processing which has implications for social and interpersonal interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hadi Mohamadpour
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
| | | | | | | | - Elmira Shakeri
- Department of Business Management, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Leyla Karami Isheqlou
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran; Department of Psychology, Utah State University, Utah, USA
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2
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Metzler H, Vilarem E, Petschen A, Grèzes J. Power pose effects on approach and avoidance decisions in response to social threat. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0286904. [PMID: 37594940 PMCID: PMC10437884 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2021] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 08/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Individuals' opportunities for action in threatening social contexts largely depend on their social power. While powerful individuals can afford to confront aggressors and dangers, powerless individuals need others' support and better avoid direct challenges. Here, we investigated if adopting expansive or contracted poses, which signal dominance and submission, impacts individuals' approach and avoidance decisions in response to social threat signals using a within-subject design. Overall, participants more often chose to avoid rather than to approach angry individuals, but showed no clear approach or avoidance preference for fearful individuals. Crucially, contracted poses considerably increased the tendency to avoid angry individuals, whereas expansive poses induced no substantial changes. This suggests that adopting power-related poses may impact action decisions in response to social threat signals. The present results emphasize the social function of power poses, but should be replicated before drawing strong conclusions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Metzler
- Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory, (LNC2), INSERM Unit 960, Department of Cognitive Studies, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL University, Paris, France
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC University Paris 06, Paris, France
- Institute for Globally Distributed Open Research and Education
| | - Emma Vilarem
- Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory, (LNC2), INSERM Unit 960, Department of Cognitive Studies, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL University, Paris, France
| | - Adrian Petschen
- Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory, (LNC2), INSERM Unit 960, Department of Cognitive Studies, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL University, Paris, France
- Institut de la Communication et de la Cognition, Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Julie Grèzes
- Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory, (LNC2), INSERM Unit 960, Department of Cognitive Studies, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL University, Paris, France
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3
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Ghosal S, Gebara E, Ramos-Fernández E, Chioino A, Grosse J, Guillot de Suduiraut I, Zanoletti O, Schneider B, Zorzano A, Astori S, Sandi C. Mitofusin-2 in nucleus accumbens D2-MSNs regulates social dominance and neuronal function. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112776. [PMID: 37440411 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112776] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Revised: 05/14/2023] [Accepted: 06/23/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a brain hub regulating motivated behaviors, including social competitiveness. Mitochondrial function in the NAc links anxiety with social competitiveness, and the mitochondrial fusion protein mitofusin 2 (Mfn2) in NAc neurons regulates anxiety-related behaviors. However, it remains unexplored whether accumbal Mfn2 levels also affect social behavior and whether Mfn2 actions in the emotional and social domain are driven by distinct cell types. Here, we found that subordinate-prone highly anxious rats show decreased accumbal Mfn2 levels and that Mfn2 overexpression promotes dominant behavior. In mice, selective Mfn2 downregulation in NAc dopamine D2 receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons (D2-MSNs) induced social subordination, accompanied by decreased accumbal mitochondrial functions and decreased excitability in D2-MSNs. Instead, D1-MSN-targeted Mfn2 downregulation affected competitive ability only transiently and likely because of an increase in anxiety-like behaviors. Our results assign dissociable cell-type specific roles to Mfn2 in the NAc in modulating social dominance and anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sriparna Ghosal
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Elias Gebara
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Eva Ramos-Fernández
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Alessandro Chioino
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jocelyn Grosse
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Isabelle Guillot de Suduiraut
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Olivia Zanoletti
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Bernard Schneider
- Bertarelli Platform for Gene Therapy, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Antonio Zorzano
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Departament de Bioquímica i Biomedicina Molecular, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabólicas Asociadas (CIBERDEM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Simone Astori
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Carmen Sandi
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Gachomba MJM, Esteve-Agraz J, Caref K, Maroto AS, Bortolozzo-Gleich MH, Laplagne DA, Márquez C. Multimodal cues displayed by submissive rats promote prosocial choices by dominants. Curr Biol 2022; 32:3288-3301.e8. [PMID: 35803272 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2021] [Revised: 04/25/2022] [Accepted: 06/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Animals often display prosocial behaviors, performing actions that benefit others. Although prosociality is essential for social bonding and cooperation, we still know little about how animals integrate behavioral cues from those in need to make decisions that increase their well-being. To address this question, we used a two-choice task where rats can provide rewards to a conspecific in the absence of self-benefit and investigated which conditions promote prosociality by manipulating the social context of the interacting animals. Although sex or degree of familiarity did not affect prosocial choices in rats, social hierarchy revealed to be a potent modulator, with dominant decision-makers showing faster emergence and higher levels of prosocial choices toward their submissive cage mates. Leveraging quantitative analysis of multimodal social dynamics prior to choice, we identified that pairs with dominant decision-makers exhibited more proximal interactions. Interestingly, these closer interactions were driven by submissive animals that modulated their position and movement following their dominants and whose 50-kHz vocalization rate correlated with dominants' prosociality. Moreover, Granger causality revealed stronger bidirectional influences in pairs with dominant focals and submissive recipients, indicating increased behavioral coordination. Finally, multivariate analysis highlighted body language as the main information dominants use on a trial-by-trial basis to learn that their actions have effects on others. Our results provide a refined understanding of the behavioral dynamics that rats use for action-selection upon perception of socially relevant cues and navigate social decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Joe Munyua Gachomba
- Neural Circuits of Social Behaviour Laboratory, Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), Sant Joan d'Alacant, Alicante, Spain
| | - Joan Esteve-Agraz
- Neural Circuits of Social Behaviour Laboratory, Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), Sant Joan d'Alacant, Alicante, Spain
| | - Kevin Caref
- Neural Circuits of Social Behaviour Laboratory, Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), Sant Joan d'Alacant, Alicante, Spain
| | - Aroa Sanz Maroto
- Neural Circuits of Social Behaviour Laboratory, Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), Sant Joan d'Alacant, Alicante, Spain
| | - Maria Helena Bortolozzo-Gleich
- Neural Circuits of Social Behaviour Laboratory, Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), Sant Joan d'Alacant, Alicante, Spain
| | - Diego Andrés Laplagne
- Laboratory of Behavioural Neurophysiology, Brain Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil
| | - Cristina Márquez
- Neural Circuits of Social Behaviour Laboratory, Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), Sant Joan d'Alacant, Alicante, Spain.
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Costa DF, Moita MA, Márquez C. Novel competition test for food rewards reveals stable dominance status in adult male rats. Sci Rep 2021; 11:14599. [PMID: 34272430 PMCID: PMC8285491 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-93818-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2021] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Social hierarchy is a potent modulator of behavior, that is typically established through overt agonistic interactions between individuals in the group. Once established, social ranks are maintained through subtler interactions allowing the redirection of energy away from agonistic interactions towards other needs. The available tasks for assessing social rank in rats allow the study of the mechanisms by which social hierarches are formed in early phases but fail to assess the maintenance of established hierarchies between stable pairs of animals, which might rely on distinct neurobiological mechanisms. Here we present and validate a novel trial-based dominancy assay, the modified Food Competition test, where established social hierarchies can be identified in the home cage of non-food deprived pairs of male rats. In this task, we introduce a small conflict in the home cage, where access to a new feeder containing palatable pellets can only be gained by one animal at a time. We found that this subtle conflict triggered asymmetric social interactions and resulted in higher consumption of food by one of the animals in the pair, which reliably predicted hierarchy in other tests. Our findings reveal stable dominance status in pair-housed rats and provide a novel tool for the evaluation of established social hierarchies, the modified Food Competition test, that is robust and easy to implement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana F Costa
- Neural Circuits of Social Behavior Laboratory, Instituto de Neurociencias (CSIC-UMH), Avenida Ramon y Cajal s/n, Sant Joan d'Alacant, 03550, Alicante, Spain
| | - Marta A Moita
- Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory, Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Av. Brasilia, 1400-038, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Cristina Márquez
- Neural Circuits of Social Behavior Laboratory, Instituto de Neurociencias (CSIC-UMH), Avenida Ramon y Cajal s/n, Sant Joan d'Alacant, 03550, Alicante, Spain.
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da Cruz JR, Shaqiri A, Roinishvili M, Favrod O, Chkonia E, Brand A, Figueiredo P, Herzog MH. Neural Compensation Mechanisms of Siblings of Schizophrenia Patients as Revealed by High-Density EEG. Schizophr Bull 2020; 46:1009-1018. [PMID: 31961928 PMCID: PMC7345810 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbz133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Visual backward masking (VBM) deficits are candidate endophenotypes of schizophrenia indexing genetic liability of the disorder. In VBM, a target is followed by a mask that deteriorates target perception. Schizophrenia patients and, to a lesser extent, their unaffected relatives show strong and reproducible VBM deficits. In patients, VBM deficits are associated with strongly decreased amplitudes in the evoked-related potentials (ERPs). Here, to unveil the neural mechanisms of VBM in schizophrenia, circumventing illness-specific confounds, we investigated the electroencephalogram correlates of VBM in unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients. We tested 110 schizophrenia patients, 60 siblings, and 83 healthy controls. As in previous studies, patients showed strong behavioral deficits and decreased ERP amplitudes compared to controls. Surprisingly, the ERP amplitudes of siblings were even higher than the ones of controls, while their performances were similar. ERP amplitudes in siblings were found to correlate with performance. These results suggest that VBM is deteriorated in patients and siblings. However, siblings, unlike patients, can partially compensate for the deficits by over-activating a network of brain regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janir R da Cruz
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland,Institute for Systems and Robotics – Lisbon (LARSyS) and Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal,To whom correspondence should be addressed; CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; tel: +41 21 693 17 42, fax: +41 21 693 1749, e-mail:
| | - Albulena Shaqiri
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Maya Roinishvili
- Laboratory of Vision Physiology, Beritashvili Centre of Experimental Biomedicine, Tbilisi, Georgia,Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences, Free University of Tbilisi, Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Ophélie Favrod
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Eka Chkonia
- Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences, Free University of Tbilisi, Tbilisi, Georgia,Department of Psychiatry, Tbilisi State Medical University, Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Andreas Brand
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Patrícia Figueiredo
- Institute for Systems and Robotics – Lisbon (LARSyS) and Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Michael H Herzog
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
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Komori T, Makinodan M, Kishimoto T. Social status and modern-type depression: A review. Brain Behav 2019; 9:e01464. [PMID: 31743626 PMCID: PMC6908884 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1464] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2019] [Revised: 10/06/2019] [Accepted: 10/13/2019] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUNDS Social hierarchy is one of the most influential social structures employed by social species. While dominants in such hierarchies can preferentially access rich resources, subordinates are forced into lower social statuses and lifestyles with inferior resources. Previous studies have indicated that the social rank regulates social behaviors and emotion in a variety of species, whereby individual organisms live within the framework of their ranks. However, in human societies, people, particularly young men, who cannot accept their own social status may show social withdrawal behaviors such as hikikomori to avoid confronting their circumstances. METHODS This article reviews the neural mechanisms underlying social status identified in animal studies with rodents and primates, and assesses how social rank affects animal's social behaviors and emotion which may be relevant to modern type depression. RESULTS Several brain regions such as medial prefrontal cortex are implicated in the formation of animal's social status, which leads to the differences in vulnerability and resilience to social stress. CONCLUSION On the basis of these findings, we propose that physical interventions such as voluntary exercise, diet, transcranial direct current stimulation, and psychotherapy, rather than psychotropic drugs, may be useful therapeutic approaches for modern type depression, which is a typical example of social status conflict and a phenotype of adjustment disorder to the traditional hierarchical social order.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takashi Komori
- Department of Psychiatry, Nara Medical University School of Medicine, Kashihara, Japan
| | - Manabu Makinodan
- Department of Psychiatry, Nara Medical University School of Medicine, Kashihara, Japan
| | - Toshifumi Kishimoto
- Department of Psychiatry, Nara Medical University School of Medicine, Kashihara, Japan
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Lozano-Montes L, Astori S, Abad S, Guillot de Suduiraut I, Sandi C, Zalachoras I. Latency to Reward Predicts Social Dominance in Rats: A Causal Role for the Dopaminergic Mesolimbic System. Front Behav Neurosci 2019; 13:69. [PMID: 31024272 PMCID: PMC6460316 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2019] [Accepted: 03/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Reward signals encoded in the mesolimbic dopaminergic system guide approach/seeking behaviors to all varieties of life-supporting stimuli (rewards). Differences in dopamine (DA) levels have been found between dominant and submissive animals. However, it is still unclear whether these differences arise as a consequence of the rewarding nature of the acquisition of a dominant rank, or whether they preexist and favor dominance by promoting reward-seeking behavior. Given that acquisition of a social rank determines animals' priority access to resources, we hypothesized that differences in reward-seeking behavior might affect hierarchy establishment and that modulation of the dopaminergic system could affect the outcome of a social competition. We characterized reward-seeking behaviors based on rats' latency to get a palatable-reward when given temporary access to it. Subsequently, rats exhibiting short (SL) and long (LL) latency to get the rewards cohabitated for more than 2 weeks, in order to establish a stable hierarchy. We found that SL animals exhibited dominant behavior consistently in social competition tests [for palatable-rewards and two water competition tests (WCTs)] after hierarchy was established, indicating that individual latency to rewards predicted dominance. Moreover, because SL animals showed higher mesolimbic levels of DA than LL rats, we tested whether stimulation of mesolimbic DA neurons could affect the outcome of a social competition. Indeed, a combination of optical stimulation of mesolimbic DA neurons during individual training and during a social competition test for palatable rewards resulted in improved performance on this test.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Lozano-Montes
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Simone Astori
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Sonia Abad
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Isabelle Guillot de Suduiraut
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Carmen Sandi
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Ioannis Zalachoras
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
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