Parental care represents a suite of distinct behaviors performed by parents to maximize fitness. Dynamic shifts in parental care behaviors, such as between nest defense and direct provisioning of the offspring, are required in response to environmental variation. However, the neural mechanisms which mediate such behavioral shifts remain a mystery. The anemonefish, Amphiprion ocellaris, represents an experimentally valuable model in social neuroscience which is conducive to manipulating the environment while simultaneously measuring parental care. The goal of this study was to determine the extent to which arginine vasotocin (AVT) and isotocin (IT) signaling are necessary for males to shift between direct egg care and aggressive nest defense in the presence of intruders, Domino damselfish (Dascyllus trimaculatus). The IT receptor antagonist desGly-NH2-d(CH2)5[D-Tyr2,Thr4]OVT, significantly reduced direct egg care, while at the same time increased levels of aggressive nest defense relative to vehicle. Conversely, blockade of AVT using the antagonist d(CH2)5[Tyr(Me)2]AVP, reduced aggression and tended to increase egg care. Results demonstrate that male anemonefish alter their parental strategy in response to allospecific intruders, and that IT and AVT signaling oppositely regulate parental care displays of aggression versus egg care.

中文翻译：

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九肽介导父母照料策略中的权衡取舍。

父母照料代表了父母为最大程度地适应而进行的一系列独特行为。需要父母照料行为的动态变化，例如在巢防御和后代直接供应之间，以响应环境变化。然而，介导这种行为转变的神经机制仍然是一个谜。Anemonefish，Amphiprion ocellaris，代表了社会神经科学中具有实验价值的模型，该模型有助于操纵环境，同时测量父母的照料。这项研究的目的是确定在入侵者多米诺豆娘（Dascyllus trimaculatus）存在的情况下，精子血管生成素（AVT）和同位素（IT）信号对于男性在直接卵护理和侵略性筑巢防御之间转换所必需的程度。IT受体拮抗剂desGly-NH2-d（CH2）5 [D-Tyr2，Thr4] OVT大大减少了直接卵子的照护，同时，相对于赋形剂，侵略性鸟巢防御的水平提高了。相反，使用拮抗剂d（CH2）5 [Tyr（Me）2] AVP阻断AVT可以减少侵略性并增加对卵的呵护。结果表明，雄性海葵鱼对同种异体入侵者的反应改变了其父母策略，IT和AVT信号相反地调节了侵略性与卵子护理之间的父母关怀。