Single aggressive and non-aggressive social interactions elicit distinct behavioral patterns to the context in mice

Author(s)

Crestani, Ariela M. ^{[1, 2]} ; Cipriano, Ana C. ^{[1, 2]} ; Nunes-de-Souza, Ricardo L. ^{[1, 2]}

Affiliation

^[1] Sao Paulo State Univ UNESP, Dept Nat Act Principles & Toxicol, Sch Pharmaceut Sci, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] Univ Estadual Paulista, Joint Grad Program Physiol Sci, UFSCar, Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: Behavioural Processes; v. 157, p. 601-609, DEC 2018.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

Aggressive interactions between conspecific animals have been used as a social stressor with ethological characteristics to study how social interactions can modulate animal's behavior. Here, a new protocol based on aggressive and non-aggressive interactions was developed to study how different social interactions can alter the behavioral profile of animals re-exposed to the context in which the interaction occurred. We used factor analysis to trace the behavioral profile of socially defeated and non-defeated mice when they were re-exposed to the apparatus {[}three interconnected chambers: home chamber, tunnel and surface area]; we also compared the behavior presented before (habituation) and 24 h after (re-exposure) the non-aggressive or aggressive interactions. A final factor analysis from defeated animals yielded 4 factors that represented 72.09% of total variance; whereas non-defeated animal's analysis was loaded with 5 factors that represented 85.46% of total variance. A 5-min non-aggressive interaction reduced the frequency of stretched attend behavior in the tunnel, whereas a single social defeat reduced time in the tunnel and increased time spent performing self-grooming in the home chamber without conditioning any other spatio-temporal and complementary measures. Together, these results suggest that different social interactions may modulate distinct behavioral profiles in animals when re-exposed to the context. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/04561-1 - Neuropsychopharmacological evaluation of the CRF mechanisms located within the amygdala on defensive reactions induced by prior exposure to social defeat in mice
• Grantee: Ana Cláudia Cipriano
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)