The neurobiology of social context-dependent stress responses

Sociability, an individual's tendency to engage in group interactions, is a fundamental property of life.Recently, sociability has been identified as a strong mortality predictor in humans. Although affecting health, we lack an understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying sociability. I here propose that the presence of others modulates an individual's response to a stressor. Being an evolutionary conserved trait, I am investigating the sociability neurocircuitry in the model system Drosophila melanogaster. Our first observations point towards group size dependent sex dimorphic differences in heat resistance to noxious temperatures. Females benefit from being included in larger groups then males in terms of reaction speed, temperature of Vmax and survival when being exposed to harmful temperatures.Furthermore, flies show sex specific social leg interactions when being subjected to a temperature gradient up until the point of conspecifics’ heat paralysis, implicating sex-specific cooperation in heat resistance. As social interaction requires conspecific recognition and context, I will further explore the importance of various sensory modalities underlying social context-dependent sex dimorphic heat stress and resistance responses.