Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM)

An individual’s personality can be influenced by a variety of stressors. Parasite infection is one type of a stressor known to effect host behaviour, and may thus contribute to differences in hosts personality. Some of parasite – induced changes can be explained by dietary stress that is a byproduct of parasite burden. While reduced energy levels may be responsible for some behavioural changes, others may result from alterations in brain chemistry. For instance, parasitic infections and dietary stress has been shown to influence brain monoaminergic systems, including serotonin and dopamine pathways, and these pathways have also been posited as the mechanisms underlying personality.

Aim is to improve our understanding of how parasites can affect host behaviour, by exploring the effects of food availability through dietary stress.

I predict that patterns observed for fish experiencing dietary stress would be similar to those having a parasitic infection, for example, increased activity levels, riskier behaviour under predation threat, and alterations to the serotonergic system, such as decrease in circulating brain serotonin levels.