Mapping How Social Experience Shapes Brain Structure

Early social experiences have a profound effect on an animal’s future behaviour, but the underlying neuronal changes driving this process remain poorly understood. Mapping these changes is challenging because the relevant neuronal circuits are dispersed across the brain, requiring both large-scale volumetric imaging and high resolution to visualise neuronal arbours. We aim to test how early social interactions affect brain structure using Synchrotron X-ray Holotomography (SXH). We will use the fruit fly larva, which displays complex social behaviours that are affected by social exposure, while maintaining a compact brain that can be imaged in its entirety by SXH. We expect this project will generate new hypotheses on how early social experiences shape brain morphology and behaviour, paving the way for future mechanistic studies on experience-dependent plasticity and the neural circuits underlying social behaviour.