required reading:
Yeh SR, Musolf BE, Edwards DH (1997) Neuronal adaptations to changes in the social dominance status of crayfish. J. Neurosci. 17(2): 697-708.
pdf-file

questions:
1. Independent of what they suggest in the conclusions of this study, what is known about the involvement of the tail-flip-response in the crayfish social-status-fights?
2. Describe what happens to crayfish response to serorotin in isolated, subordinate and dominant crayfish. How does history change the response?
3. What happens when serotonin agonist is used?
4. Why does the response to serotonin continue to change 12 days after the fight? When does it stabilize? Would this increased or decreased sensitivity to serotonin effect behavior outside the context of social-status interactions?
5. Describe how serotonin receptors are involved in crayfish social-status according to their model. Does it seem likely that this type of response would be limited to the cells involved in tail-flip only? If no, what other tissues may be involved?
6. Describe an experiment to test their adaptive hypothesis.

PDF-file of power point lecture (about 2.3 MB)

background reading:

Yeh, SR Fricke, RA Edwards, DH (1996) The effect of social experience on serotonergic modulation of the escape circuit of crayfish. Science 271(5247): 366-369.
Krasne FB, Shamsian A, Kulkarni R (1997) Altered excitability of the crayfish lateral giant escape reflex during agonistic encounters. J Neurosci 17(2): 709-716. pdf-file (behavior combined with e-phys)
Edwards DH, Heitler WJ, and Krasne FB (1999) Fifty years of a command neuron: the neurobiology of escape behavior in the crayfish. TINS, 22, 153-161. pdf-file
Huber R, Smith K, Delago A, Isaksson K, Kravitz E (1997) Serotonin and aggressive motivation in crustaceans: Altering the decision to retreat. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 94:5939–5942. pdf-file

Examples for brain plasticity in the honey bee

Faber T, Joerges J, Menzel R (1999). Associative learning modifies neural representations of odors in the insect brain. Nature Neurosci 2(1):74-78. pdf-file
Farris SM, Robinson GE, Fahrbach SE (2001) Experience- and Age-Related Outgrowth of Intrinsic Neurons in the Mushroom Bodies of the Adult Worker Honeybee. J Neurosci 21(16):6395–6404 . pdf-file
Sigg D,. Thompson CM, Mercer AR (1997) Activity-Dependent Changes to the Brain and Behavior of the Honey Bee, Apis mellifera (L.). J Neurosci 17(18):7148–7156 pdf-file

Links:
Robert Huber's Crusties Neuroethology
Kravitz Lab Movie page