Effect of Oxytocin and Vasopressin On Animal Social Behavior
In the past few decades, it has been discovered that oxytocin and vasopressin neuropeptides have key roles in the regulation of social cognition and behavior in mammals. Although homologs have been discovered which are pervasive across many taxa which have similar roles in social and reproductive behaviors, the specific influenced behaviors are quite diverse. For example in snails, the homolog for oxytocin/vasopressin conopressin modulates ejaculation in males and egg laying in females. On the other hand for vertebrates, there is sexual dimorphism in the neuropeptides—oxytocin induces maternal behavior in females and vasopressin induces territoriality, aggression and reproduction in males. Interestingly in sheep, oxytocin has another effect on a female in addition to a generalized increase in maternal behavior—it induces mother-infant bond selectivity by priming the mother's olfactory bulb, and the mother selectively learns the offspring's scent.
An insightful study of vasopressin is its role in the stimulation of monogamous behavior. The V1a vasopressin receptor gene is a mechanism most widely studied. Different species of voles were studied, prairie voles which are monogamous in nature and montane voles, which tend towards polygamy. Using viral vector mediated gene expression, which allows the cross-species transplanting of genes, when the V1a receptor expression was increased in the reward and reinforcement neural circuitry of montane voles, they acquired a more selective preference for their mate. Their behavior became more akin to that of prairie voles. Therefore, it is alteration of vasopressin receptor gene expression patterns is thought to affect social behavior, rather than the neuropeptide itself. A proposed mechanism for the difference in these patterns is the variation of microsatellite DNA length that is upstream of the V1a receptor gene—short microsatellite DNA in the 5' flanking region of the gene has a different effect on prairie vole behavior than longer microsatellite DNA. Whether this is a mechanism that is replicable in the wild is uncertain.
Read more about this topic: Genetics Of Social Behavior
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