Building neuroanatomical resources for three-spined sticklebacks: Brain areas important for social behavior

Three-spined stickleback fish are famous for their diversity and charismatic social behavior. However, there are few neuroanatomical resources for studying the neural and brain mechanisms underlying their fascinating behavior.

We identify 11 brain areas important for social behavior by referencing brain atlases for six other teleost fishes. Brain regions were identified via neuroanatomical landmarks and we characterized the presence / absence of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), a key gene product of the dopaminergic system, in those regions. Comparing the neuroanatomical location of these regions in the stickleback brain and the expression of TH therein to that of other fish species highlights similarities and differences and the need for a brain atlas specific to sticklebacks. This resource serves as a map of the location of regions important for social behavior in the stickleback brain.

This resource will help guide future studies connecting gene function to social behavior through the brain and will enable future work to understand the evolution of neural mechanisms that contribute to the diversity of social behavior in this emerging model organism.