A critical period for social isolation in the rat

Einon, Dorothy; Morgan, Michael J.

doi:10.1002/dev.420100205

Cited by 305 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(13 reference statements)

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“…This could indicate a delayed habituation of 1-animals to novel environments. Einon and Morgan [7] claimed a slower habituation to contacts with objects in the open field of isolated animals, but File [10] reported that a general impairment in the ability to habituate is not a characteristic of isolates. However, differences in habituation to the testeage in individually and group-housed animals have been described in mice [ 1,15].…”

Section: Fig 3 Correlation Diagram Comparing Frequency and Durationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term isolation increases social interactions of male rats: A parametric analysis

Niesink

Ree

1982

Physiology & Behavior

162

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NIESINK, R. J. M. AND J. M. VAN REE. Short-term isolation increases social interactions of male rats: A parametricanalysis. PHYSIOL. BEHAV. 29(5) [819][820][821][822][823][824][825] 1982.--Frequencies of social interactions were higher in pairs of short-term individually housed male Wistar rats as compared to group-housed animals. This was most pronounced when an individually housed rat and a group-housed conspecitic were tested together in the morning under red light conditions. Then, in particular the behavioral elements exploration partner, anogenital investigation, crawl over/mount and social grooming were enhanced. The increases in social interactions was dependent on the duration of the period of individual housing and appeared to be maximal after 4 to 7 days of individual housing. The effect extinguished after repeated testing. The observed behavioral changes were hardly affected by habituation to the test cage and were also present in young animals. The increase in social interactions is apparently not due to a general increase in locomotor or exploratory behavior, since no differences in ambulation between individually-and group-housed animals were observed when they were tested together in the social interaction test, and locomotor activities hardly differed in an open field test procedure. Social interactionHousing In most of these studies long-term individually housed animals were used and the differences with group-housed animals were apparent only after weeks or sometimes even months of individual housing. However, other studies showed that also short-term social deprivation induces disturbances, for instance, a delayed adaptation to painful stimuli when rats were repeatedly tested on a hotplate (Van Ree, unpublished observations), an increase in systolic blood pressure and heart rate [12] and increased social activity when the rats were put back in a social situation [11, 20, 28].In the present study we have studied in detail the increas~Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr. J. M. van Ree at the ing effect of short-term isolation on social interactions of pairs of rats. Additional experiments showed that this effect is specific for social interactions and is not due to a more general change in locomotion or exploratory behavior of isolated rats. METHOD AnimalsMale rats of a Wistar strain, weighing between 180 and 220 grams were used, unless otherwise indicated (see experiment d below). The rats were obtained from TNO-Zeist, The Netherlands and housed in wire cages in groups of approximately 20 animals. Prior to experimentation the rats were either individually housed (isolated, I) or in groups of 5 animals per cage (non-isolated, S) for 7 days, except as otherwise indicated. Home cages were of plastic, 22 x 13 cm and 26x40 cm, respectively. During the isolation period the cages of isolated and non-isolated rats were in the same room, so the isolated animals could hear and probably smell other rats, but did not have physical contact with them. During this period the animals were kept in...

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Section: Fig 3 Correlation Diagram Comparing Frequency and Durationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term isolation increases social interactions of male rats: A parametric analysis

Niesink

Ree

1982

Physiology & Behavior

162

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“…Exposure to stressors during juvenility was reported to produce more pronounced effects than exposure at earlier or later ages, affecting object exploration in adulthood (Einon and Morgan, 1977), fluid intake (McGivern et al, 1996), and adulthood social and nonsocial behaviors associated with disregulation of endogenous opioid system development ( Van den Berg et al, 1999a, b, c, 2000.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure to Stressors during Juvenility Disrupts Development-Related Alterations in the PSA-NCAM to NCAM Expression Ratio: Potential Relevance for Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Tsoory

Guterman

Richter‐Levin

2007

Neuropsychopharmacol

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Childhood trauma is associated with higher rates of both mood and anxiety disorders in adulthood. The exposure of rats to stressors during juvenility has comparable effects, and was suggested as a model of induced predisposition for these disorders. The neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and its polysialylated form PSA-NCAM are critically involved in neural development, activity-dependent synaptic plasticity, and learning processes. We examined the effects of exposure to stressors during juvenility on coping with stressors in adulthood and on NCAM and PSA-NCAM expression within the rat limbic system both soon after the exposure and in adulthood. Exposure to stressors during juvenility reduced novel-setting exploration and impaired two-way shuttle avoidance learning in adulthood. Among naive rats, a development-related decrease of about 50% was evident in the PSA-NCAM to NCAM expression ratio in the basolateral amygdala, in the CA1 and dentate gyrus regions of the hippocampus, and in the entorhinal cortex. In juvenile-stressed rats, we found no such decrease, but rather an increase in the polysialylation of NCAM (B50%), evident soon after the exposure to juvenile stress and also in adulthood. Our results suggest that exposure to stressors during juvenility alters the maturation of the limbic system, and potentially underlies the predisposition to exhibit stress-related symptoms in adulthood.

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“…After long-term impoverished housing rats develop an array of behavioural changes, including, amongst others, increased aggression [ 14,26], high locomotor activity [112] and altered social behaviour [ 17]. Several authors have contributed the impoverishment effect to a 'hyperreactivity to environmental stimuli' or 'hyperarousal' [6,10,14]. Wade and Mater concluded that the Morris maze task may have interacted with the exaggerated arousability of the rats, and the subsequent level of arousal was detrimental to learning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This test also shows that even though both housing conditions can affect the performance of animals with brain lesions, the effects of each housing condition possibly do not rely on the same principle. The effect of enrichment is often supposed to rely on an enhancement of the adaptive capacity of the animals [9] which could help the animals with a lesion to switch more easily to alternative search strategies [34], but whereas the effect of impoverishment, though not fully understood, may rely on a difference in arousability, a different reaction to stress or a higher reactivity to cues [6,10,14]. However, it is not clear from the present data whether the impoverished rats may have also used the alternative search strategy mentioned in the enrichment study, since the search pattern of the animals has not been studied in greater detail.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically impoverishment during week 4 and 5 decreases social interest later in life, and causes deficits in submissive behaviours when IC-rats :are placed in the territory of a dominant male (T. Hol, thesis 1994). Einon has shown that IC effects on object contact and radial arm maze learning could not be induced when rats were first introduced to the impoverished condition after 45/50 days of age [5,6], but emergence from cover in an open field could be affected by impoverishment at any time [6]. Some behaviours seem to be susceptible to impoverishment starting well after weaning; rats impoverished at young adult age are slower to extinguish conditioned taste aversion [13], and upon resocialization after a period of impoverishment rats show an increase in social grooming and approach the other animal more [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long-term impoverished housing effects on morris maze performance after a fimbria lesion

Rijzingen

Doremalen

Gispen

et al. 1996

Behavioural Brain Research

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Male Wistar rats received bilateral Fimbria lesions and were postoperatively housed in either standard social conditions or in impoverished conditions (one rat per cage) for 2 weeks in experiment I, and for 7 months in experiment II. The effects of lesion and housing conditions wer,~ investigated in the Morris maze spatial orientation task. Fimbria lesions increased the latency to reach the platform during acquisition in both experiments, which indicates that functional recovery of the Morris maze impairment does not occur in 7 months time. Post-operative impoverishment for 2 weeks or for 7 months reduced the lesion induced deficit in Morris maze acquisition, while it had a more general effect in the trial without platform. Interestingly, the impoverishment effects were not more severe after 7 months, but even less easily detected. These findings are interpreted as if impoverishment affects the reactiveness of a~imals to external stimuli, which may help the animal to compensate for the lesion-induced-deficit in Morris maze learning.

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A critical period for social isolation in the rat

Cited by 305 publications

References 8 publications

Short-term isolation increases social interactions of male rats: A parametric analysis

Short-term isolation increases social interactions of male rats: A parametric analysis

Exposure to Stressors during Juvenility Disrupts Development-Related Alterations in the PSA-NCAM to NCAM Expression Ratio: Potential Relevance for Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Long-term impoverished housing effects on morris maze performance after a fimbria lesion

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