Richmond R. Thompson

Bowdoin College Main, USA

Abstract

[O04] Vasotocin, Vasopressin and the Evolution of Social Regulatory Mechanisms in Vertebrates

Vasotocin and its mammalian homologue, vasopressin, influence a variety of social behaviors in vertebrate animals, particularly in reproductive contexts, indicating that such functions have been highly conserved during vertebrate evolution.  However, the specific behaviors affected and even the direction of effect can vary between closely related species and even between alternative phenotypes within a species, suggesting that changes in these peptide systems underlie social  adaptations to unique evolutionary pressures.  Such complexity was likely built upon primitive peptide circuits that were involved in the regulation of more simple social behaviors in the ancestors of modern vertebrates, though such primitive circuits may continue to contribute to social regulation in extant species, perhaps interacting with more derived circuits to influence the intensity or even the direction of behavioral responses initiated within those circuits.  In this talk I will discuss work in my lab that has examined a primitive vasotocin circuit in goldfish that influences simple approach / withdrawal responses in this species, as well as work in roughskin newts showing how adaptations in that circuit may be associated with a very different behavioral effect, one associated with the stimulation of stereotypical courtship responses.  I will finish by discussing work we have done showing effects of the related peptide, vasopressin, on human social communication that are likely associated with the evolution of still more complex forebrain peptide circuits.

Keywords:  Autonomic, Vagus, Hindbrain, Anxiety

Biography

Thompson received a BS in Biology and Psychology from Furman University in 1989, and a Ph.D. in Biopsychology from Cornell University in 1996.  He was a post-doctoral research associated in the Zoology Department at Oregon State, where he worked with Frank Moore, from 1996 until 1999.  He is now an associate professor at Bowdoin College, where he studies how the brain processes social stimuli and how it uses that information to organize behavioral output, especially emotional interactions between individuals. In particular, he is interested in the role that neuropeptide brain circuits play in the modulation of social behavior and on how those regulatory mechanisms evolved in vertebrates.