DOI: 10.5061/dryad.kkwh70sd0
title: Data from: Social complexity during early development has long-term effects on neuroplasticity in the social decision-making network

description: In social species, early social experience shapes the development of
 appropriate social behaviours during conspecific interactions referred to
 as social competence. However, the underlying neuronal mechanisms
 responsible for the acquisition of social competence are largely unknown.
 One key candidate to influence social competence is neuroplasticity, which
 functions to restructure neural networks in response to novel experiences
 or alterations of the environment. One important mediator of this
 restructuring is the neurotrophin BDNF, which is well conserved among
 vertebrates. We studied the highly social fish Neolamprologus pulcher, in
 which the impact of early social experience on social competence has been
 previously shown. We investigated experimentally how variation of the
 early social environment impacts markers of neuroplasticity by analysing
 the relative expression of the bdnf gene and its receptors p75NTR and TrkB
 across nodes of the Social Decision-Making Network. In fish raised in
 larger groups, bdnf and TrkB were upregulated in the anterior tuberal
 nucleus, compared to fish raised in smaller groups, while TrkB was
 downregulated and bdnf was upregulated in the lateral part of the dorsal
 telencephalon. In the preoptic area (POA), all three genes were
 upregulated in fish raised in large groups, suggesting that early social
 experiences might lead to changes of the neuronal connectivity in the POA.
 Our results highlight the importance of the early social experience in
 programming the constitutive expression of neuroplasticity markers,
 suggesting that the effects of early social experience on social
 competence might be due to changes in neuroplasticity.
description: # Social complexity during early development has long-term effects on
 neuroplasticity in the social decision-making network
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kkwh70sd0](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kkwh70sd0) ## Description of the data and file structure The data was collected from qPCR analysis of fish brain regions (ATN, DL, POA, TPP). We targeted 3 genes, *bdnf*, p75NTR and TrkB as well as 18S as a housekeeping gene. All missing data represented as NA. ### Files and variables #### File: data_genexp_all_final.xlsx ##### Variables * Sample: sample ID * brain_area: Brain area collected: anterior tuberal nucleus (ATN), lateral zone of the dorsal telencephalic area (DL), preoptic area (POA), posterior tuberculum (TPP) * fish_ID: Individual fish ID * age_at_sampling: Age the fish were at sampling (in years) * treatment: Early life treatment: raised in small (S) or large (L) groups of fish * Sex: Sex of the fish: male (M), female (F) or unknown (U) * familyID: ID of the family where the fish were raised * Target: Target gene (bdnf, p75 or TrkB) * efficiency_target: primer efficiency of the gene target * Avg_CT: average cycle threshold for gene target * Efficiency_18S: primer efficiency of the control gene * CT_18S: cycle threshold for control gene * Etarget^ct_target: Efficiency of the target relative to cycle threshold of target (=1/(1+Efficiency of Target)^Average Ct) * Econt^ctcont: Efficiency of the target relative to cycle threshold of Control (=1/(1+Efficiency of Control)^Average Ct of Control) * rel_exp: relative expression of the gene target (Efficiency of target relative to Ct/Efficiency of control relative to Ct) * bh_test: whether the individual took part in previous behavioural experiments. #### File: P75_product_output_Npulcher.fasta Fasta file of the product output of the p75 gene after sequencing. #### File: trkb_product_output_Npulcher.fasta Fasta file of the product output of the TrkB gene after sequencing.