Arginine Vasopressin (AVP), and Oxytocin (OT) on the brain sound localization circuits of rodents with different social behavior strategies
Evans, Avery ; McKinney, Josh ; Hill, Kami ; Joseph, Luberson ; McCullagh, Elizabeth
Citations
Abstract
Arginine vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OXT) are both nonapeptide hormones known to regulate social behavior and are synthesized primarily in the hypothalamus. Although many studies have revealed the roles of AVP and OXT in mammals with different social behavior strategies, relatively few studies have provided a detailed analysis of the number of cells that contain AVP and OXT in different brain areas, especially the brain sounds localization circuits. Here we used immunohistochemistry to provide a detailed analysis of the number of vasopressin and oxytocin cells in the auditory brainstems regions (LSO, MSO, and MNTB) of small mammals with three broad social classifications including solitary (Neotoma floridana, Dipodomys ordii, sigmodon hispidus), monogamous (Microtus ochrogaster, Onychomys leucogaster, Peromyscus maniculatus), and highly social (Rattus norvegicus, Cynomys ludovicianus, Mus musculus) species. We expected to see significantly more expressions of vasopressin and oxytocin cells in the lateral superior olive (LSO), the medial superior olive (MSO), and the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB) of highly social mammals compared to solitary-like mammals. We also expect that highly social mammals will have significantly larger MSO, LSO, and NMTB compared to both monogamous and solitary mammals. This study will extend previous findings, showing the size and approximately estimate the number of vasopressin and oxytocin cells in different sound localization brain pathways.