Data from: Social interactions elicit rapid shifts in functional connectivity in the social decision-making network of zebrafish

According to the social decision-making (SDM) network hypothesis, SDM is encoded in a network of forebrain and midbrain structures in a distributed and dynamic fashion, such that the expression of a given social behaviour is better reflected by the overall profile of activation across the different loci rather than by the activity of a single node. This proposal has the implicit assumption that SDM relies on integration across brain regions, rather than on regional specialization. Here we tested the occurrence of functional localization and of functional connectivity in the SDM network. For this purpose we used zebrafish to map different social behaviour states into patterns of neuronal activity, as indicated by the expression of the immediate early genes c-fos and egr-1, across the SDM network. The results did not support functional localization, as some loci had similar patterns of activity associated with different social behaviour states, and showed socially driven changes in functional connectivity. Thus, this study provides functional support to the SDM network hypothesis and suggests that the neural context in which a given node of the network is operating (i.e. the state of its interconnected areas) is central to its functional relevance.

根据社会决策（Social Decision-Making, SDM）网络假说，SDM以分布式且动态的方式编码于前脑与中脑的结构网络之中，即某一特定社会行为的发生，更能通过不同脑区位点的整体激活模式得以体现，而非依赖单个节点的活动水平。该假说隐含了一个核心前提：SDM的实现依赖于脑区间的信息整合，而非单一脑区的功能特化。本研究针对SDM网络中的功能定位现象与功能连接性展开验证：我们以斑马鱼为实验模型，通过检测即刻早期基因（immediate early genes）c-fos与egr-1的表达水平，将不同社会行为状态映射至SDM网络内的神经元活动模式中。研究结果并不支持功能定位假说——部分脑区位点在不同社会行为状态下呈现出高度相似的活动模式，同时证实了社会因素驱动的功能连接变化。综上，本研究为SDM网络假说提供了功能性实验支撑，并表明：网络中任一节点发挥功能的神经背景（即其相连脑区的功能状态），是决定其功能相关性的核心要素。