Department of Biology, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
Anim Cogn. 2020 Jul;23(4):827-831. doi: 10.1007/s10071-020-01381-4. Epub 2020 Apr 17.
Pro-social effects of oxytocin and its homologues are well-documented in birds and mammals. However, in fishes, the effect of isotocin, the homologue of oxytocin, on social behaviour is less clear. Studies in fishes have generally shown no effect of isotocin on social behaviours or even an anti-social effect. In our study, we measured association preference for conspecifics in 92 adult guppies (46 females and 46 males), half of which were injected with isotocin and the other half with an isotocin antagonist. We found that individuals injected with isotocin spent 29% more time associating with conspecifics than individuals injected with an isotocin antagonist. The effect of isotocin on association time did not differ between males and females. Our study provides some of the first evidence of a pro-social effects of isotocin in a fish and suggests that in fishes, isotocin may have a homologous role to oxytocin, at least in promoting shoaling behaviour.
催产素及其同系物在鸟类和哺乳动物中的亲社会效应已得到充分证实。然而，在鱼类中，催产素同系物——缩宫素对社会行为的影响尚不清楚。鱼类研究一般表明，缩宫素对社会行为没有影响，甚至有反社会作用。在我们的研究中，我们测量了 92 条成年孔雀鱼（46 条雌鱼和 46 条雄鱼）对同种鱼的偏好程度，其中一半注射了缩宫素，另一半注射了缩宫素拮抗剂。我们发现，注射缩宫素的个体与同种鱼相处的时间比注射缩宫素拮抗剂的个体多 29%。缩宫素对与同种鱼相处时间的影响在雌雄个体之间没有差异。我们的研究提供了鱼类中缩宫素具有亲社会效应的一些初步证据，并表明在鱼类中，缩宫素至少在促进群体行为方面可能具有与催产素类似的作用。
