Mechanisms of social behaviour in the anti-social blind cavefish ( <i>Astyanax mexicanus</i> )
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The evolution of social behaviour in Astyanax mexicanus , which exists as a sighted, surface-dwelling morph and a blind, cave-dwelling morph, provides a model for understanding how environmental pressures shape social behaviours. We compared the shoaling behaviour of blind and surface A. mexicanus to that of zebrafish ( Danio rerio ), and examined the effects of nutritional state and the neuropeptides isotocin (IT) and arginine vasotocin (AVT) on their social behaviour. Blind cavefish not only fail to form shoals, but actively avoid conspecifics, with hunger further diminishing their social cohesion. Administration of low doses of AVT and an IT antagonist partially restored social behaviour in blind cavefish, reducing distances between individuals, whereas surface fish exhibited minimal or opposite responses to these hormonal manipulations. Our findings suggest that the loss of shoaling behaviour in blind cavefish is not a consequence of visual impairment alone, as they remain capable of detecting and responding to others. Instead, this behaviour probably reflects an adaptive response to their resource-poor, predator-free cave environment, where shoaling may be disadvantageous. The differing responses to nonapeptides between the morphs indicate that blind cavefish may have lost the motivation to shoal rather than the ability, highlighting how ecological pressures can shape social behaviour.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".