Journal
BMC BIOLOGY
Volume 20, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
BMC
DOI: 10.1186/s12915-022-01486-x
Keywords
Visual stimuli; Innate fear behavior; Sex difference; Lifespan
Categories
Funding
- National Science and Technology Innovation 2030-Major Project of China [2022ZD0208300]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31630031, 31930047]
- Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province [2018B030340001]
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Behavior [2017B030301017]
- NSFC-Guangdong Joint Fund [U20A6005]
- Shenzhen Key Basic Research Project [JCYJ20220818100805013]
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Translational Research for Brain Diseases [ZDSYS20200828154800001]
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BackgroundSex differences ranging from physiological functions to pathological disorders are developmentally hard-wired in a broad range of animals, from invertebrates to humans. These differences ensure that animals can display appropriate behaviors under a variety of circumstances, such as aggression, hunting, sleep, mating, and parental care, which are often thought to be important in the acquisition of resources, including territory, food, and mates. Although there are reports of an absence of sexual dimorphism in the context of innate fear, the question of whether there is sexual dimorphism of innate defensive behavior is still an open question. Therefore, an in-depth investigation to determine whether there are sex differences in developmentally hard-wired innate defensive behaviors in life-threatening circumstances is warranted.ResultsWe found that innate defensive behavioral responses to potentially life-threatening stimuli between males and females were indistinguishable over their lifespan. However, by using 3 dimensional (3D)-motion learning framework analysis, we found that males and females showed different behavioral patterns after escaping to the refuge. Specifically, the defensive freezing occurred primarily in males, whereas females were more likely to return directly to exploration. Moreover, there were also no estrous phase differences in innate defensive behavioral responses after looming stimuli.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate that visually-evoked innate fear behavior is highly conserved throughout the lifespan in both males and females, while specific post-threat coping strategies depend on sex. These findings indicate that innate fear behavior is essential to both sexes and as such, there are no evolutionary-driven sex differences in defensive ability.
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