对社会感知很重要的大脑区域,社会奖励,和社会行为-统称为社会决策网络(SDN)-似乎在各个分类单元中高度保守。这些大脑区域促进了各种社会行为,如特定的方法/回避,侵略,交配,父母的照顾,和认可。尽管已经对SDN进行了跨分类单元的调查,人们对它在爬行动物中的作用知之甚少。对蛇SDN的研究可能会提供重要的新见解,因为蛇具有敏锐的社会感知系统,并且表现出相对减少的社会行为。这里,我们提供了一项实验的结果,在该实验中,球蟒蛇(Pythonregius)与同种异体相互作用一小时,并通过Fos免疫反应性研究了神经激活。与对照组相比,与社会互动的蛇在涉及整个类群的社会行为的大脑区域中具有较高的Fos计数,比如内侧杏仁核,视前区,伏隔核,和基底外侧杏仁核.此外,我们在腹侧杏仁核中发现了不同的Fos免疫反应性,这促进了社交大脑区域之间的交流。在这些领域中,Fos计数因性别而异,这可能是由于男性之间的竞争加剧。Fos计数在早期感官上没有差异(即,vomeronasal)处理结构。由于球蟒蛇社会系统缺乏父母的照顾,合作,或者长期的群体生活,这些结果为脊椎动物社会决策网络的基本功能提供了有价值的见解。
Brain areas important for social perception, social reward, and social behavior - collectively referred to as the social-decision-making network (SDN) - appear to be highly conserved across taxa. These brain areas facilitate a variety of social behaviors such as conspecific approach/avoidance, aggression, mating, parental care, and recognition. Although the SDN has been investigated across taxa, little is known about its functioning in reptiles. Research on the snake SDN may provide important new insights, as snakes have a keen social perceptual system and express a relatively reduced repertoire of social behaviors. Here, we present the results of an experiment in which ball pythons (Python regius) interacted with a same-sex conspecific for one hour and neural activation was investigated through Fos immunoreactivity. Compared to controls, snakes that interacted socially had higher Fos counts in brain areas implicated in social behavior across taxa, such as the medial amygdala, preoptic area, nucleus accumbens, and basolateral amygdala. Additionally, we found differential Fos immunoreactivity in the ventral amygdala, which facilitates communication between social brain areas. In many of these areas, Fos counts differed by sex, which may be due to increased competition between males. Fos counts did not differ in early sensory (i.e., vomeronasal) processing structures. As ball python social systems lack parental care, cooperation, or long-term group living, these results provide valuable insight into the basal functions of the vertebrate social decision-making network.