Dopamine regulates fruit flies’ perception of personal space, a new study suggests. The concept of a “bubble”, or the amount and proximity of others one feels comfortable with, is observed in one form or another in all social animals. New research shows evidence that for fruit flies, dopamine is a key modulator of social space. Generally, the more dopamine there is in the fly’s system, the greater the social space. The effect of dopamine seems to be more pronounced in daytime, and affected by a few other factors, including the fly’s sex: for example, in males, introduction of dopamine into individual tissues increased social space during courtship, but increasing dopamine in all tissues simultaneously reduces social space. Researchers also looked into a potential link between dopamine and the avoidance of odours released by stressed flies – another determinant of social space – but did not find such an association.
Authors:
Robert W. Fernandez, Adesanya A. Akinleye, Marat Nurilov, Omar Feliciano, Matthew Lollar, Rami R. Aijuri, Janis M. O’Donnell, Anne F. Simon
Corresponding author:
Anne Simon, Western University, Email: asimon28@uwo.ca
Original paper published in Biology Letters on August 8, 2017.
