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We investigated the relationship between social interactions, brain serotonergic activity, and two behavioural patterns in juvenile Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus): feeding and spontaneous swimming activity. Dominant and subordinate individuals were observed during rearing in pairs, followed by rearing in isolation. Throughout the experiment, levels of both food intake and swimming activity remained high in dominant fish. When they were in pairs, food intake was completely inhibited in subordinate fish; thus, dominant fish were able to monopolise food. At the same time, brain serotonergic activity, as indexed by the ratio of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) to serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) was elevated in the hypothalamus and brain stem of subordinate fish compared with dominants. During subsequent rearing in isolation, food intake, but not spontaneous locomotor activity, gradually increased in previously subordinate fish, while serotonergic activity fell to near that of dominants. Thus, appetite inhibition in subordinate fish can be reversed by rearing in isolation, an effect that may be related to the reversal of a stress-induced activation of brain serotonergic neurones accompanying social subordination. Reduced swimming activity is either a long-lasting response to social subordination or reflects permanently different behavioural strategies of subordinate and dominant individuals.
Øverli et al. (Wed,) studied this question.