Data from: Stimulation of dopamine D1 receptor improves learning capacity in cooperating cleaner fish

Accurate contextual decision-making strategies are key in social environments where one’s own actions not only depend on its peers’ actions, but also ultimately influences their own responses as well. Specific areas in the brain are tasked to process these complex interactions and generate correct follow-up responses. The dorso-lateral and dorso-medial parts of the telencephalon in the teleost fish brain are neural substrates modulated by the neurotransmitter Dopamine (DA), and are part of an important neural circuitry that drives animal behaviour from the most basic actions such as learning to search for food, to properly choosing partners and manage decisions based on context. The indo-Pacific cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus is a highly social teleost fish species with a complex network of interactions with its “client” reef fish. We asked if changes in DA transmission would affect the individual learning ability by presenting two ecologically different tasks that simulated a natural situation requiring accurate decision-making. We demonstrate that there is a direct involvement of the DA system and the D1 receptor pathways on cleaners’ natural abilities to learn both tasks. Our results add significantly to the growing literature on the physiological mechanisms that underlie and facilitate the expression of cooperative abilities.