Interindividual Variability in Swiss Male Mice: Relationship between Social Factors, Aggression, and Anxiety

Ferrari, Pier Francesco; Palanza, Paola; Parmigiani, Stefano; Rodgers, R.J.

doi:10.1016/s0031-9384(97)00544-1

Cited by 110 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…This difference in behavior is best explained by the LR fish disposing higher levels of risk assessment compared to HR fish, which is in agreement with results obtained in Swiss male mice (Mus musculus) [Ferrari et al, 1998]. Ferrari et al [1998] showed that unstressed dominant mice with high levels of aggression showed higher levels of risk assessment in an elevated plus-mace compared to unstressed subordinate mice with low levels of aggression.…”

Section: Heritable Factors Affect Stress Response Profilessupporting

confidence: 88%

Genetically Determined Variation in Stress Responsiveness in Rainbow Trout: Behavior and Neurobiology

Schjolden

Winberg

2007

Brain Behav Evol

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It is becoming increasingly recognized that the diversity in stressors, their intensity, predictability and the context in which they are experienced, will result in behavioral and physiological responses just as diverse. In addition, stress responses are characterized by individual variations where the physiological and behavioral reactions are associated in such a manner that distinct stress coping styles encompassing suites of correlated traits can be identified. These are often referred to as proactive and reactive stress coping styles. Proactive coping is characterized by more aggression, higher general activity and higher sympathetic activation, whereas reactive coping is characterized by immobility, lack of initiative and a higher parasympathetic/hypothalamic activation. Stable coping styles appear to coexist within populations, and these strategies appear to be largely innate. Moreover, the physiological and behavioral traits of coping styles appear to be heritable. These stress coping styles have proven to play a major role in competitive ability and subsequent social position in different species of vertebrates. However, there are also studies showing that social position can affect parameters encompassing the stress coping style of individuals. In this regard it is important, but not always easy, to distinguish between causes and effects of behavioral and physiological responses to stressors. The question raised is to what extent and rigidness stress coping styles are guided by genetic factors.

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Section: Heritable Factors Affect Stress Response Profilessupporting

confidence: 88%

Genetically Determined Variation in Stress Responsiveness in Rainbow Trout: Behavior and Neurobiology

Schjolden

Winberg

2007

Brain Behav Evol

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“…From these reports, it would be expected that the EW mice in the present study would have had high anxiety levels. Previous reports demonstrated that anxiolytic drugs affected aggressive behaviors [4,14,16], and aggression is known to occur in association with anxiety. For example, dominant mice, i.e., those from aggressive strains or winners in social confrontations, also have high anxiety levels [3,5,10].…”

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confidence: 97%

The Influence of Early Weaning on Aggressive Behavior in Mice

et al. 2003

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ABSTRACT. Early postnatal experiences have been shown to have a tremendous influence on behavior development. In this study, we focused on weaning time and investigated the effects of early weaning on adulthood aggressive behavior in mice with the residentintruder test. Early weaning resulted in decreased sideways threat and tail rattle. In addition, the frequency of attack bites was more variable in the early weaned group, although the mean frequency did not differ from the normally weaned group. The results of the present study suggest that aggressive behavior is also affected by early weaning manipulation. KEY WORDS: aggression, early environment, weaning.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 65(12): 1347-1349, 2003 Development of the behavioral repertoire is greatly influenced by the early postnatal environment in various mammalian species. In particular, mother-pup interactions play an important role in the development of instinctive behavior [1,8,11,12,17,19]. In rats, for instance, a lower level of maternal care or long-term maternal deprivation increases responsiveness to various stressors and anxiety-related behavior, whereas the same deprivation suppresses the manifestation of social behavior [1,8,12,19]. Rhesus monkeys that received less maternal care also exhibit exaggerated fear responses and emotional behavior [11,17].Weaning is one of the most important experiences in the early life of mammalian species. Early weaning from the mother led to a decrease in play-fighting and to an increase in anxiety-related behavior in juvenile rats [6,7]. Similarly, a decrease in social seeking behaviors has been reported in mice [18]. Recently, we have found that early weaning results in a persistent increase in anxiety in mice [9]. This finding suggested that the timing of weaning has a long-lasting influence on various aspects of behavioral development, in addition to the direct effects observed during the neonatal and/or juvenile stages of life.As for aggressive behavior, however, there is only limited information about the effects of timing of weaning and the postnatal environment. We have previously found that male mice weaned earlier than normally weaned mice have a greater number of wounds on their tails when co-housed with male mice that had been manipulated in the same manner [9]. This finding implies that the level of aggression may have been heightened by the early weaning manipulation but we could not detect the attack bite behavior in isolation-induced aggression tests. One possible explanation for why the laboratory mice were not very aggressive in the isolation-induced aggression test was the fact that sexually naive mice were used in the previous study, and such mice have been reported to show low levels of aggression [2,15]. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of early weaning on aggressive behavior exhibited in adulthood after the males were paired with females for 3 weeks. The resident-intruder test was adopted for the study, as it was considered to be suitable for assessing the natural ...

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“…It may also be a part of an experimental paradigm to study the effect of deprivation of social stimuli or to induce stress. 19,20 Other reasons for individual housing of rodents could be after surgical procedures involving the implantation of equipment (such as chronic cannulas for serial blood sampling 21 or electrodes for EEG recordings) and sutures which can be damaged by other animals. Animals may thus need to be housed singly or removed from their groups into the operating chamber or cage, and returned after the stipulated time of recording or surgery has finished.…”

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confidence: 99%

The effects of enriching laboratory cages using various physical structures on multiple measures of welfare in singly-housed rats

Abou-Ismail

Mahboub

2011

Lab Anim

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The single housing of laboratory rats may be recommended in some situations such as hypothesis-driven or test-specific studies, during electroencephalogram recording of phases of sleep and after surgical procedures. However, as single housing of laboratory rats has been shown to be stressful, modification of the housing environment is needed to improve the welfare of these animals. This experiment was carried out to investigate the long-term effects of environmental enrichment on some behavioural, physiological, pathological and psychological measures of welfare. With two batches of animals, 24 rats were housed singly in either enriched cages (EC) (n ¼ 12 cages) or unenriched cages (UC) (n ¼ 12 cages). Behaviour was sampled every week and so was body weight and weight gain over a six-week observation period. Behaviours of the rats in the elevated plus-maze were recorded on the seventh week, whereas organ weights were recorded postmortem. The results revealed that long-term single housing of rats in super-enriched cages increased levels of indicators of good welfare including sleep, exploration, movement and feeding behaviour, body weights, weight gains and the relative weights of the thymus gland and spleen, and decreased levels of indicators of poor welfare such as stationary behaviour and the relative weight of adrenal glands. Thus, enrichment of conventional cages of newly weaned singly-housed laboratory rats with multiple physical structures appeared to improve their ability to control the environment and to promote their species-specific behaviour; changes that can ultimately result in good welfare.

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Interindividual Variability in Swiss Male Mice: Relationship between Social Factors, Aggression, and Anxiety

Cited by 110 publications

References 36 publications

Genetically Determined Variation in Stress Responsiveness in Rainbow Trout: Behavior and Neurobiology

Genetically Determined Variation in Stress Responsiveness in Rainbow Trout: Behavior and Neurobiology

The Influence of Early Weaning on Aggressive Behavior in Mice

The effects of enriching laboratory cages using various physical structures on multiple measures of welfare in singly-housed rats

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