Determining how behavior and familiarity tests predict performance of Betta splendens in aggressive social competitions. Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

Across many species, an individual’s behavior in a social competition can be predicted by factors like size, condition, and previous competitive experience. But how does an individual’s behavior in nonsocial contexts influence performance? This study explored how Betta splendens performance in social competition correlates to performance across cognitive and behavioral tasks. To investigate this correlation, the question was divided into two experiments, the first consisting of four behavioral tests and the second of five social exposures. The behavioral tests, novel object interaction (NOI), scototaxis, mirror, and detour were conducted to explore how individual subject behavior, stress, and cognition predicted real-life social competition. I found that individual performance in the scototaxis and NOI were not predictive of real-life social competition while the mirror test did predict aggressive behavior. The five days of social exposure testing were organized to also answer the question of how betta behavior differs in competition with a novel versus a familiar opponent. No differences were found in behavior nor neural activity between the two groups suggesting betta behavior does not change depending on familiarity with an opponent. Notably, it was found that a positive correlation existed between the percent time spent in the object zone of the NOI and the standard length of the fish indicating larger fish are less neophobic. Additionally, standard length was also correlated to the principal component analysis for Day 1 social exposure, which suggests that subjects who exhibited more a “preparedness for direct contact” strategy, tended to also be bigger in size.

Table of Contents

Introduction---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1-4

Methods------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4-13

Subjects and Housing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

           Experimental Design Overview-------------------------------------------------------------------------5-6

           Behavioral Testing--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7-10

           Social Exposure Testing ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10-11

           Immunohistochemistry--------------------------------------------------------------------------------11-12

           Scoring and Data Analysis----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13

Results -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------14-25

           Behavioral Testing Overview---------------------------------------------------------------------------14

           Behavioral Testing and SE Day 1 Correlations----------------------------------------------------------15-16

           SE Day 1 Multidimensional Relationships--------------------------------------------------------------17-18

           Behavioral Testing and SE Day 1 PCA Correlations-----------------------------------------------------18-21

           SE Day 1 and SE Day 5 Differences----------------------------------------------------------------------21-24

           SE Day 5 and Neural Activity Differences---------------------------------------------------------------24-25

Discussion----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------26-30

           Behavioral Testing -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------26-28

           Social Exposure Testing ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28-29

           Standard Length ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------29-30

Conclusion-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------30

References---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31-36

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology
Degree	B.S.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Behavioral
Keyword	Social Betta Behavior Cognition
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Aubrey Kelly, Emory University
Committee Members	Kelly Wallace, Emory University Keith Easterling, Emory University Rick Thomspon, Emory University

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