ePoster

Investigating behavioral variables underlying helping behavior in mice

Anna Agafonovaand 4 co-authors

Presenting Author

Conference
FENS Forum 2024 (2024)
Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Conference

FENS Forum 2024

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Resources

Authors & Affiliations

Anna Agafonova, Leon Marquardt, Moises dos Santos Correa, Pavol Bauer, Sanja Mikulovic

Abstract

In our previous study, we conducted a rescue behavior experiment. In this experiment, mice were trained to rescue a distressed familiar conspecific of the same sex by opening a door under two conditions: when the trapped mouse was in a dry or flooded chamber. We demonstrated that mice exhibit rescue behavior towards a distressed conspecific. Additionally, we discovered that inhibiting the dorsal hippocampus impairs this behavior. However, several questions regarding the specific components of impaired behavior remain. Does the emotional arousal of potential helpers increase when witnessing a distressed conspecific? Furthermore, does the inhibition of the dorsal hippocampus affect the motivation or learning capabilities of potential helpers? To address these points, we conducted a thorough behavior analysis. For this analysis, we utilized DeepLabCut, an open-source toolbox, for pose estimation. Additionally, using a pre-annotated training set we employed XGBoost, an open-source library that implements tree-boosting supervised algorithms, to classify distinct behaviors in all experiments. Our findings indicate that the behavior of the mice varied across different days, suggesting the significance of learning and its influence on this type of behavior. We further investigated the impact of stress levels on the behavior of potential helpers and examined behavioral variances after hippocampal inhibition. Our detailed analysis revealed distinct behavioral strategies under these two conditions. Additionally, our findings demonstrated disparate behavioral strategies between the helper and non-helper groups, emphasizing the significance of meticulous behavioral analysis in understanding the mechanisms behind helping behavior in mice.

Unique ID: fens-24/investigating-behavioral-variables-8a6e1b0e