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Neuromodulators and the Control of Aggression in Crickets

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The Cricket as a Model Organism

Abstract

Crickets have emerged as ideal model systems for investigating the mechanisms controlling intraspecific aggressive behaviour. As in many animals, male aggression in crickets is shaped by numerous experiences including physical exertion, past wins and defeats and the acquisition of resources. This chapter reviews work revealing that neuromodulators, primarily octopamine and nitric oxide, mediate such experience-dependent plasticity by modulating the relative behavioural thresholds to fight and to flee. Octopamine, the invertebrate analogue of noradrenaline, promotes the tendency to fight by mediating the effects of flying, winning and shelter occupancy and thus represents the motivational component of aggression. The gaseous neuromodulator nitric oxide, on the other hand, mediates the decision to flee and induces a period of prolonged submissiveness, which is characteristic for social defeat in many animals. Accumulating evidence also suggests a role for serotonin, dopamine and selected peptides in controlling insect aggression. The roles for neuromodulators in insect aggression are in essence similar to those emerging for corresponding signalling molecules in mammals, where their specific behavioural functions are less clear.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the German Research Council (DFG) for generous funding (DFG Research Group, FOR 1363, grant STE 714/4-1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany

    Paul A. Stevenson

  2. Institute for Neurobiology, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Jan Rillich

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  1. Paul A. Stevenson
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  2. Jan Rillich
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Correspondence to Paul A. Stevenson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Biology and Neuroscience, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA

    Hadley Wilson Horch

  2. Graduate school of Bioscience and Bioindustry, Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan

    Taro Mito

  3. Biological Sciences Department, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA

    Aleksandar Popadić

  4. Department of Cytology and Histology, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan

    Hideyo Ohuchi

  5. Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Okayama, Japan

    Sumihare Noji

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Stevenson, P.A., Rillich, J. (2017). Neuromodulators and the Control of Aggression in Crickets. In: Horch, H., Mito, T., Popadić, A., Ohuchi, H., Noji, S. (eds) The Cricket as a Model Organism. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56478-2_12

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