scholarly journals Comparative Assessment of Familiarity/Novelty Preferences in Rodents

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annaliese K. Beery ◽  
Katharine L. Shambaugh
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Preference ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Female Rats ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Prairie Voles ◽  
Meadow Voles ◽  
Male And Female Rats ◽  
High Degree

Sociality—i.e., life in social groups—has evolved many times in rodents, and there is considerable variation in the nature of these groups. While many species-typical behaviors have been described in field settings, the use of consistent behavioral assays in the laboratory provides key data for comparisons across species. The preference for interaction with familiar or novel individuals is an important dimension of social behavior. Familiarity preference, in particular, may be associated with more closed, less flexible social groups. The dimension from selectivity to gregariousness has been used as a factor in classification of social group types. Laboratory tests of social choice range from brief (10 minutes) to extended (e.g., 3 hours). As familiarity preferences typically need long testing intervals to manifest, we used 3-hour peer partner preference tests to test for the presence of familiarity preferences in same-sex cage-mates and strangers in rats. We then conducted an aggregated analysis of familiarity preferences across multiple rodent species (adult male and female rats, mice, prairie voles, meadow voles, and female degus) tested with the same protocol. We found a high degree of consistency within species across data sets, supporting the existence of strong, species-typical familiarity preferences in prairie voles and meadow voles, and a lack of familiarity preferences in other species tested. Sociability, or total time spent near conspecifics, was unrelated to selectivity in social preference. These findings provide important background for interpreting the neurobiological mechanisms involved in social behavior in these species.

scholarly journals Stress alters social behavior and sensitivity to pharmacological activation of kappa opioid receptors in an age-specific manner in Sprague Dawley rats

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena I. Varlinskaya ◽  
Linda Patia Spear ◽  
Marvin R. Diaz
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Preference ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Female Rats ◽  
Prior History ◽  
Social Avoidance ◽  
Sprague Dawley ◽  
Social Investigation ◽  
Play Fighting ◽  
Male And Female Rats

AbstractThe dynorphin/kappa (DYN/KOR) system has been identified as a primary target of stress due to behavioral effects, such as dysphoria, aversion, and anxiety-like alterations that result from activation of this system. Numerous adaptations in the DYN/KOR system have also been identified in response to stress. However, whereas most studies examining the function of the DYN/KOR system have been conducted in adults, there is growing evidence suggesting that this system is ontogenetically regulated. Likewise, the outcome of exposure to stress also differs across ontogeny. Based on these developmental similarities, the objective of this study was to systematically test effects of a selective KOR agonist, U62066, on various aspects of social behavior across ontogeny in non-stressed male and female rats as well as in males and females with a prior history of repeated exposure to restraint (90 min/day, 5 exposures). We found that the social consequences of repeated restraint differed as a function of age: juvenile stress produced substantial increases in play fighting, whereas adolescent and adult stress resulted in decreases in social investigation and social preference. The KOR agonist U62066 dose-dependently reduced social behaviors in non-stressed adults, producing social avoidance at the highest dose tested, while younger animals displayed reduced sensitivity to this socially suppressing effect of U62066. Interestingly, in stressed animals, the socially suppressing effects of the KOR agonist were blunted at all ages, with juveniles and adolescents exhibiting increased social preference in response to certain doses of U62066. Taken together, these findings support the hypothesis that the DYN/KOR system changes with age and differentially responds and adapts to stress across development.

Bio-Inspired Algorithms for Medical Data Analysis

2018 ◽  
pp. 251-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanane Menad ◽  
Abdelmalek Amine
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Medical Data ◽  
The Other ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Classification Rules ◽  
Medical Data Mining ◽  
Good Efficiency

Medical data mining has great potential for exploring the hidden patterns in the data sets of the medical domain. These patterns can be utilized for clinical diagnosis. Bio-inspired algorithms is a new field of research. Its main advantage is knitting together subfields related to the topics of connectionism, social behavior, and emergence. Briefly put, it is the use of computers to model living phenomena and simultaneously the study of life to improve the usage of computers. In this chapter, the authors present an application of four bio-inspired algorithms and meta heuristics for classification of seven different real medical data sets. Two of these algorithms are based on similarity calculation between training and test data while the other two are based on random generation of population to construct classification rules. The results showed a very good efficiency of bio-inspired algorithms for supervised classification of medical data.

Dominance and aggression in social groups of male and female rats

1984 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.Caroline Blanchard ◽  
Chantis Fukunaga-Stinson ◽  
Lorey K. Takahashi ◽  
Kevin J. Flannelly ◽  
Robert J. Blanchard
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Female Rats ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Male And Female Rats

scholarly journals Two Hits of EDCs Three Generations Apart: Effects on Social Behaviors in Rats, and Analysis by Machine Learning

Toxics ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Ross Gillette ◽  
Michelle Dias ◽  
Michael P. Reilly ◽  
Lindsay M. Thompson ◽  
Norma J. Castillo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Preference ◽  
Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals ◽  
Social Behaviors ◽  
Female Rats ◽  
Pregnant Rat ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Male And Female Rats ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Aroclor 1221

All individuals are directly exposed to extant environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and indirectly exposed through transgenerational inheritance from our ancestors. Although direct and ancestral exposures can each lead to deficits in behaviors, their interactions are not known. Here we focused on social behaviors based on evidence of their vulnerability to direct or ancestral exposures, together with their importance in reproduction and survival of a species. Using a novel “two hits, three generations apart” experimental rat model, we investigated interactions of two classes of EDCs across six generations. PCBs (a weakly estrogenic mixture Aroclor 1221, 1 mg/kg), Vinclozolin (antiandrogenic, 1 mg/kg) or vehicle (6% DMSO in sesame oil) were administered to pregnant rat dams (F0) to directly expose the F1 generation, with subsequent breeding through paternal or maternal lines. A second EDC hit was given to F3 dams, thereby exposing the F4 generation, with breeding through the F6 generation. Approximately 1200 male and female rats from F1, F3, F4 and F6 generations were run through tests of sociability and social novelty as indices of social preference. We leveraged machine learning using DeepLabCut to analyze nuanced social behaviors such as nose touching with accuracy similar to a human scorer. Surprisingly, social behaviors were affected in ancestrally exposed but not directly exposed individuals, particularly females from a paternally exposed breeding lineage. Effects varied by EDC: Vinclozolin affected aspects of behavior in the F3 generation while PCBs affected both the F3 and F6 generations. Taken together, our data suggest that specific aspects of behavior are particularly vulnerable to heritable ancestral exposure of EDC contamination, that there are sex differences, and that lineage is a key factor in transgenerational outcomes.

scholarly journals IMPACT OF ADOLESCENT INTERMITTENT ETHANOL EXPOSURE IN MALE AND FEMALE RATS ON SOCIAL DRINKING AND NEUROPEPTIDE GENE EXPRESSION

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Towner ◽  
Kimberly M Papastrat ◽  
Linda P Spear ◽  
Elena I Varlinskaya ◽  
David F Werner
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Lateral Septum ◽  
Female Rats ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Social Investigation ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Male And Female Rats ◽  
Social Drinking ◽  
Drinking Ethanol

Background: Alcohol use during adolescence can alter maturational changes that occur in brain regions associated with social and emotional responding. Our previous studies have shown that adult male, but not female rats demonstrate social anxiety-like alterations and enhanced sensitivity to ethanol-induced social facilitation following adolescent intermittent ethanol (AIE) exposure. These consequences of AIE may influence adult social drinking in a sex-specific manner. Methods: To test effects of AIE on social drinking, male and female Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to water or ethanol [0 or 4 g/kg, intragastrically, every other day, between postnatal day (P) 25 and 45] were tested as adults (P72-83) in a social drinking paradigm (30-minute access to a 10% ethanol solution in supersac or supersac alone in groups of three same-sex littermates across two 4-day cycles separated by 4 days off). Social behavior was assessed during the last drinking session, with further assessment of oxytocin (OXT), oxytocin receptor (OXTR), vasopressin (AVP) and vasopressin receptors 1a and 1b (AVPR1a, AVPR1b) in the hypothalamus and lateral septum. Results: Males exposed to AIE consumed more ethanol than water-exposed controls during the second drinking cycle, whereas AIE did not affect supersac intake in males. AIE-exposed females consumed less ethanol and more supersac than water-exposed controls. Water-exposed females drinking ethanol showed more social investigation as well as significantly higher hypothalamic OXTR, AVP, and AVPR1b gene expression than their counterparts ingesting supersac and AIE females drinking ethanol. In males, hypothalamic AVPR1b gene expression was affected by drinking solution, with significantly higher expression evident in males drinking ethanol than those consuming supersac. Conclusions: Collectively, these findings provide new evidence regarding sex-specific effects of AIE on social drinking and suggest that the hypothalamic OXT and AVP systems are implicated in the effects of ingested ethanol on social behavior in a sex- and adolescent exposure-dependent manner.

scholarly journals Social selectivity and social motivation in voles

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annaliese K Beery ◽  
Sarah A Lopez ◽  
Katrina L Blandino ◽  
Nicole S Lee ◽  
Natalie S Bourdon
Keyword(s):  
Social Preference ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Preference Test ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Oxytocin Receptor ◽  
Social Reward ◽  
Social Monogamy ◽  
Prairie Voles ◽  
Meadow Voles

Selective relationships are fundamental to humans and many other animals, but relationships between mates, family members, or peers may be mediated differently. We examined connections between social reward and social selectivity, aggression, and oxytocin receptor signaling pathways in rodents that naturally form enduring, selective relationships with mates and peers (monogamous prairie voles) or peers (group-living meadow voles). Female prairie and meadow voles worked harder to access familiar vs. unfamiliar individuals, regardless of sex, and huddled extensively with familiar subjects. Male prairie voles displayed strongly selective huddling preferences for familiar animals, but only worked harder to repeatedly access females vs. males, with no difference in effort by familiarity. This reveals a striking sex difference in pathways underlying social monogamy, and demonstrates a fundamental disconnect between motivation and social selectivity in males-a distinction not detected by the partner preference test. Meadow voles exhibited social preferences but low social motivation, consistent with tolerance rather than reward supporting social groups in this species. Natural variation in oxytocin receptor binding predicted individual variation in prosocial and aggressive behaviors. These results provide a basis for understanding species, sex, and individual differences in the mechanisms underlying the role of social reward in social preference.

scholarly journals Social selectivity and social motivation in voles

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annaliese K Beery ◽  
Sarah A Lopez ◽  
Katrina L Blandino ◽  
Nicole S Lee ◽  
Natalie S Bourdon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Variation ◽  
Social Preference ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Oxytocin Receptor ◽  
Social Reward ◽  
Social Monogamy ◽  
Prairie Voles ◽  
Meadow Voles

Selective relationships are fundamental to humans and many other animals, but relationships between mates, family members, or peers may be mediated differently. We examined connections between social reward and social selectivity, aggression, and oxytocin receptor signaling pathways in rodents that naturally form enduring, selective relationships with mates and peers (prairie voles) or peers (meadow voles). Female prairie and meadow voles worked harder to access familiar vs. unfamiliar individuals, regardless of sex, and huddled extensively with familiar subjects. Male prairie voles also displayed strongly selective huddling preferences for familiar animals, but worked hardest to repeatedly access females vs. males, with no difference in effort by familiarity. This demonstrates a fundamental disconnect between motivation and social selectivity in males, and reveals a striking sex difference in pathways underlying social monogamy. Meadow voles exhibited social preferences but low social motivation, consistent with tolerance rather than reward supporting social groups in this species. Natural variation in oxytocin receptor genotype was associated with oxytocin receptor density, and both genotype and receptor binding predicted individual variation in prosocial and aggressive behaviors. These results provide a basis for understanding species, sex, and individual differences in the mechanisms underlying the role of social reward in social preference.

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