Paired fruit flies synchronize behavior: Uncovering social interactions in Drosophila melanogaster
Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Social behaviors are ubiquitous and crucial to an animal's survival and success. The behaviors an animal performs in a social setting are affected by internal factors, inputs from the environment, and interactions with others. To quantify social behaviors, we need to measure both the stochastic nature of the behavior of isolated individuals and how this behavioral repertoire changes as a function of the environment and interactions between individuals. We probed the behavior of male and female fruit flies in a circular arena as individuals and within all possible pairings. By combining measurements of the animals' position in the arena with an unsupervised analysis of their behaviors, we define the effects of position in the environment and the presence of a partner on locomotion, grooming, singing, and other behaviors that make up an animal's repertoire. We find that geometric context tunes behavioral preference, pairs of animals synchronize their behavioral preferences across shared trials, and paired individuals display signatures of behavioral mimicry.
Source: PLoS Computational Biology
Authors: Ugne Klibaite, Joshua W. Shaevitz
Institution: Princeton University
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,500
Awards: G2229954460, G2432923657, PFC: Center for the Physics of Biological Function, Dissecting Sensorimotor Pathways Underlying Social Interactions: Models, Circuits, and Behavior, G5812093873, BRAIN EAGER: Closing the Loop on Social Behaviors, From Mathematical Models to Neural Circuit Dynamics, Programs on Critical Problems in Physics, Astrophysics and Biophysics at the Aspen Center for Physics
OpenAlex ID: W3092223982