title: Neurogenomic mechanisms of social plasticity.
abstract: Group-living animals must adjust the expression of their social behaviour to changes in their social environment and to transitions between life-history stages, and this social plasticity can be seen as an adaptive trait that can be under positive selection when changes in the environment outpace the rate of genetic evolutionary change. Here, we propose a conceptual framework for understanding the neuromolecular mechanisms of social plasticity. According to this framework, social plasticity is achieved by rewiring or by biochemically switching nodes of a neural network underlying social behaviour in response to perceived social information. Therefore, at the molecular level, it depends on the social regulation of gene expression, so that different genomic and epigenetic states of this brain network correspond to different behavioural states, and the switches between states are orchestrated by signalling pathways that interface the social environment and the genotype. Different types of social plasticity can be recognized based on the observed patterns of inter- versus intra-individual occurrence, time scale and reversibility. It is proposed that these different types of social plasticity rely on different proximate mechanisms at the physiological, neural and genomic level.
authors.affiliation: ISPA - Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim do Tabaco 34, 1149-041 Lisbon, Portugal Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Rua da Quinta Grande 6, 2780-156 Oeiras, Portugal Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Avenida Brasília, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Sara D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.affiliation: ISPA - Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim do Tabaco 34, 1149-041 Lisbon, Portugal Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Rua da Quinta Grande 6, 2780-156 Oeiras, Portugal Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Avenida Brasília, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Magda C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Teles
authors.affiliation: ISPA - Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim do Tabaco 34, 1149-041 Lisbon, Portugal Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Rua da Quinta Grande 6, 2780-156 Oeiras, Portugal Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Avenida Brasília, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal ruiol@ispa.pt.
authors.forename: Rui F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Oliveira
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000235:genetics*; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Behavioural flexibility; Behavioural shifts; Behavioural states; Epigenetics; Neural plasticity; Social behaviour