Kristi Ruvina is the latest Crayfish Neuroscience Lab member to earn a Student Summer Scholars grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research.  He is the eighth student from the lab to receive such an award.  His research proposal was entitled,” Neuropharmocological Alterations of the Aggressive Behavior of Crayfish.”

Aggressive encounters between animals of the same species are termed agonistic interactions to differentiate these meetings from other social relationships.  Agonistic interactions occur when individuals display signals and/or fight over resources, such as habitats, shelters, mates, and food sources.  The primary effect of agonistic interactions is the establishment of a dominance relationship that confers a pecking order for resources.  Moreover, agonistic interactions influence neurochemistry and can have long-lasting effects on subsequent social interactions.  Yet, the neural and neuroendocrine mechanisms that underlie social dominance are not fully understood, largely because they include dynamic interactions within and between systems at all levels, from gene expression to complex social interactions.  Despite this complexity, some of the neurochemicals that appear to play significant roles in aggression and consequently influence dominance behavior have been identified.

Serotonin and its receptors have been shown to play a role in altering aggression in crayfish, however Kristi’s study will hopefully help to indicate if serotonin and other drugs influence the resulting dominance of crayfish. Dominance is thought to provide an advantage when obtaining limited resources in nature. Therefore the outcome of aggressive interactions appears to ultimately be under selective pressure.  Our study will try to show that aggression is just one part of a series of behavioral decisions that crayfish make in the determination of dominance.