Title: | "Chronic social instability in adult female rats alters social behavior, maternal aggression and offspring development" |
Author(s): | Pittet F; Babb JA; Carini L; Nephew BC; |
Address: | "Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University: Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, Massachusetts. Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Pain Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts" |
ISSN/ISBN: | 1098-2302 (Electronic) 0012-1630 (Print) 0012-1630 (Linking) |
Abstract: | "We investigated the consequences of chronic social instability (CSI) during adulthood on social and maternal behavior in females and social behavior of their offspring in a rat model. CSI consisted of changing the social partners of adult females every 2-3 days for 28 days, 2 weeks prior to mating. Females exposed to CSI behaved less aggressively and more pro-socially towards unfamiliar female intruders. Maternal care was not affected by CSI in a standard testing environment, but maternal behavior of CSI females was less disrupted by a male intruder. CSI females were quicker to attack prey and did not differ from control females in their saccharin consumption indicating, respectively, no stress-induced sensory-motor or reward system impairments. Offspring of CSI females exhibited slower growth and expressed more anxiety in social encounters. This study demonstrates continued adult vulnerability to social challenges with an impact specific to social situations for mothers and offspring" |
Keywords: | "Aggression/*physiology Animals Behavior, Animal/*physiology Female Male Maternal Behavior/*physiology Rats Rats, Sprague-Dawley *Social Behavior Stress, Psychological/*physiopathology epigenetics maternal aggression maternal care behavior social behavior;" |
Notes: | "MedlinePittet, Florent Babb, Jessica A Carini, Lindsay Nephew, Benjamin C eng K99 HD059943/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ R00 HD059943/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ UL1 TR001064/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2017/02/01 Dev Psychobiol. 2017 Apr; 59(3):291-302. doi: 10.1002/dev.21491. Epub 2017 Jan 31" |