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Jalabert C, Gray SL, Soma KK. An Aggressive Interaction Rapidly Increases Brain Androgens in a Male Songbird during the Non-breeding Season. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e1095232024. [PMID: 38658166 PMCID: PMC11154856 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1095-23.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Revised: 04/10/2024] [Accepted: 04/11/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Aggression is a crucial behavior that impacts access to limited resources in different environmental contexts. Androgens synthesized by the gonads promote aggression during the breeding season. However, aggression can be expressed during the non-breeding season, despite low androgen synthesis by the gonads. The brain can also synthesize steroids ("neurosteroids"), including androgens, which might promote aggression during the non-breeding season. Male song sparrows, Melospiza melodia, are territorial year-round and allow the study of seasonal changes in the steroid modulation of aggression. Here, we quantified steroids following a simulated territorial intrusion (STI) for 10 min in wild adult male song sparrows during the breeding and non-breeding seasons. Using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), we examined 11 steroids: pregnenolone, progesterone, corticosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone, androstenedione, testosterone, 5α-dihydrotestosterone, 17β-estradiol, 17α-estradiol, estriol, and estrone. Steroids were measured in blood and 10 microdissected brain regions that regulate social behavior. In both seasons, STI increased corticosterone in the blood and brain. In the breeding season, STI had no rapid effects on androgens or estrogens. Intriguingly, in the non-breeding season, STI increased testosterone and androstenedione in several behaviorally relevant regions, but not in the blood, where androgens remained non-detectable. Also in the non-breeding season, STI increased progesterone in the blood and specific brain regions. Overall, rapid socially modulated changes in brain steroid levels are more prominent during the non-breeding season. Brain steroid levels vary with season and social context in a region-specific manner and suggest a role for neuroandrogens in aggression during the non-breeding season.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Jalabert
- Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Sofia L Gray
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Kiran K Soma
- Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
- Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada
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Love N, Preininger D, Fuxjager MJ. Social regulation of androgenic hormones and gestural display behavior in a tropical frog. Horm Behav 2023; 155:105425. [PMID: 37683499 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2023.105425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Revised: 08/30/2023] [Accepted: 08/31/2023] [Indexed: 09/10/2023]
Abstract
Many animals use forms of gesture and dance to communicate with conspecifics in the breeding season, though the mechanisms of this behavior are rarely studied. Here, we investigate the hormone basis of such visual signal behavior in Bornean rocks frogs (Staurois parvus). Our results show that males aggregating at breeding waterfalls have higher testosterone (T) levels, and we speculate that this hormone increase is caused by social cues associated with sexual competition. To this end, we find that T levels in frogs at the waterfall positively predict the number waving gestures-or "foot flags"-that males perform while competing with rivals. By contrast, T does not predict differences in male calling behavior. In these frogs, vocal displays are used largely as an alert signal to direct a rival's attention to the foot flag; thus, our results are consistent with the view that factors related to reproductive context drive up T levels to mediate displays most closely linked to male-male combat, which in this case is the frog's elaborate gestural routine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nya Love
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Brown University, USA
| | - Doris Preininger
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Vienna, Austria; Vienna Zoo, Vienna, Austria
| | - Matthew J Fuxjager
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Brown University, USA.
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Barske J, Fuxjager MJ, Ciofi C, Natali C, Schlinger BA, Billo T, Fusani L. Beyond plumage: acrobatic courtship displays show intermediate patterns in manakin hybrids. Anim Behav 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.01.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/12/2023]
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Anderson NK, Goodwin SE, Schuppe ER, Dawn A, Preininger D, Mangiamele LA, Fuxjager MJ. Activational vs. organizational effects of sex steroids and their role in the evolution of reproductive behavior: Looking to foot-flagging frogs and beyond. Horm Behav 2022; 146:105248. [PMID: 36054981 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2022.105248] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Revised: 07/14/2022] [Accepted: 08/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Sex steroids play an important role in regulation of the vertebrate reproductive phenotype. This is because sex steroids not only activate sexual behaviors that mediate copulation, courtship, and aggression, but they also help guide the development of neural and muscular systems that underlie these traits. Many biologists have therefore described the effects of sex steroid action on reproductive behavior as both "activational" and "organizational," respectively. Here, we focus on these phenomena from an evolutionary standpoint, highlighting that we know relatively little about the way that organizational effects evolve in the natural world to support the adaptation and diversification of reproductive behavior. We first review the evidence that such effects do in fact evolve to mediate the evolution of sexual behavior. We then introduce an emerging animal model - the foot-flagging frog, Staurois parvus - that will be useful to study how sex hormones shape neuromotor development necessary for sexual displays. The foot flag is nothing more than a waving display that males use to compete for access to female mates, and thus the neural circuits that control its production are likely laid down when limb control systems arise during the developmental transition from tadpole to frog. We provide data that highlights how sex steroids might organize foot-flagging behavior through its putative underlying mechanisms. Overall, we anticipate that future studies of foot-flagging frogs will open a powerful window from which to see how sex steroids influence the neuromotor systems to help germinate circuits that drive signaling behavior. In this way, our aim is to bring attention to the important frontier of endocrinological regulation of evolutionary developmental biology (endo-evo-devo) and its relationship to behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nigel K Anderson
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States of America
| | - Sarah E Goodwin
- Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, MA, United States of America
| | - Eric R Schuppe
- Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
| | - AllexAndrya Dawn
- Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, MA, United States of America
| | - Doris Preininger
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Vienna Zoo, Vienna, Austria
| | - Lisa A Mangiamele
- Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, MA, United States of America.
| | - Matthew J Fuxjager
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States of America.
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Schwark RW, Fuxjager MJ, Schmidt MF. Proposing a neural framework for the evolution of elaborate courtship displays. eLife 2022; 11:e74860. [PMID: 35639093 PMCID: PMC9154748 DOI: 10.7554/elife.74860] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2021] [Accepted: 05/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
In many vertebrates, courtship occurs through the performance of elaborate behavioral displays that are as spectacular as they are complex. The question of how sexual selection acts upon these animals' neuromuscular systems to transform a repertoire of pre-existing movements into such remarkable (if not unusual) display routines has received relatively little research attention. This is a surprising gap in knowledge, given that unraveling this extraordinary process is central to understanding the evolution of behavioral diversity and its neural control. In many vertebrates, courtship displays often push the limits of neuromuscular performance, and often in a ritualized manner. These displays can range from songs that require rapid switching between two independently controlled 'voice boxes' to precisely choreographed acrobatics. Here, we propose a framework for thinking about how the brain might not only control these displays, but also shape their evolution. Our framework focuses specifically on a major midbrain area, which we view as a likely important node in the orchestration of the complex neural control of behavior used in the courtship process. This area is the periaqueductal grey (PAG), as studies suggest that it is both necessary and sufficient for the production of many instinctive survival behaviors, including courtship vocalizations. Thus, we speculate about why the PAG, as well as its key inputs, might serve as targets of sexual selection for display behavior. In doing so, we attempt to combine core ideas about the neural control of behavior with principles of display evolution. Our intent is to spur research in this area and bring together neurobiologists and behavioral ecologists to more fully understand the role that the brain might play in behavioral innovation and diversification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan W Schwark
- Department of Biology, University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUnited States
- Neuroscience Graduate Group, University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUnited States
| | - Matthew J Fuxjager
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Brown UniversityProvidenceUnited States
| | - Marc F Schmidt
- Department of Biology, University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUnited States
- Neuroscience Graduate Group, University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUnited States
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Anderson NK, Grabner M, Mangiamele LA, Preininger D, Fuxjager MJ. Testosterone amplifies the negative valence of an agonistic gestural display by exploiting receiver perceptual bias. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20211848. [PMID: 34784769 PMCID: PMC8595994 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1848] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2021] [Accepted: 10/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Many animals communicate by performing elaborate displays that are incredibly extravagant and wildly bizarre. So, how do these displays evolve? One idea is that innate sensory biases arbitrarily favour the emergence of certain display traits over others, leading to the design of an unusual display. Here, we study how physiological factors associated with signal production influence this process, a topic that has received almost no attention. We focus on a tropical frog, whose males compete for access to females by performing an elaborate waving display. Our results show that sex hormones like testosterone regulate specific display gestures that exploit a highly conserved perceptual system, evolved originally to detect 'dangerous' stimuli in the environment. Accordingly, testosterone makes certain gestures likely to appear more perilous to rivals during combat. This suggests that hormone action can interact with effects of sensory bias to create an evolutionary optimum that guides how display exaggeration unfolds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nigel K. Anderson
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
| | - Martina Grabner
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria
| | - Lisa A. Mangiamele
- Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063, USA
| | - Doris Preininger
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria
- Vienna Zoo, Vienna 1130, Austria
| | - Matthew J. Fuxjager
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
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Zhu Y. Commentary for "Sex Steroids as Modulators of Gestural Communication". Endocrinology 2020; 161:5902565. [PMID: 32894769 PMCID: PMC7609130 DOI: 10.1210/endocr/bqaa153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2020] [Accepted: 08/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Yong Zhu
- Department of Biology, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA
- Correspondence: Yong Zhu, PhD, Department of Biology, East Carolina University, 1000 E 5th St, Greenville, NC 27858, USA. E-mail:
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