Sex- and context-dependent effects of acute isolation on vocal and non-vocal social behaviors in mice

Abstract

Humans are extraordinarily social, and social isolation has profound effects on our behavior, ranging from increased social motivation following short periods of social isolation to increased anti-social behaviors following long-term social isolation. Mice are frequently used as a model to understand how social isolation impacts the brain and behavior. While the effects of chronic social isolation on mouse social behavior have been well studied, much less is known about how acute isolation impacts mouse social behavior and whether these effects vary according to the sex of the mouse and the behavioral context of the social encounter. To address these questions, we characterized the effects of acute (3-day) social isolation on the vocal and non-vocal social behaviors of male and female mice during same-sex and opposite-sex social interactions. Our experiments uncovered pronounced effects of acute isolation on social interactions between female mice, while revealing more subtle effects on the social behaviors of male mice during same-sex and opposite-sex interactions. Our findings advance the study of same-sex interactions between female mice as an attractive paradigm to investigate neural mechanisms through which acute isolation enhances social motivation and promotes social behavior.

Hearing, touching, and multisensory integration during mate choice

“…Finally, recent studies in rats and mice have shown that USVs of the opposite sex increase the sexual motivation of both male and female rats (Bialy et al, 2019; and mice (Pomerantz et al, 1983;Finton et al, 2017;Fernández-Vargas, 2018;Kuwaki and Kanno, 2021;Zhao et al, 2021). Sexual motivation in turn has been shown to be a strong reinforcer for mate choice (Matthews et al, 2005;Bialy et al, 2019).…”

Gaining insights into the internal states of the rodent brain through vocal communications

“…Aged (1-year-old) females emit less USVs compared to younger adult females (Moles et al, 2007). Furthermore, 3-days socially isolated females emit more USVs than group-housed females (Zhao et al, 2021).…”

“…Male mice emit USVs during male-male social encounter, especially during sniffing the opponent male (K. Gillian D. Sales, 1972;Scattoni et al, 2011;Zhao et al, 2021), but not during aggressive encounter (Karigo et al, 2021;Gillian D. Sales, 1972;Whitney et al, 1973). The acoustic features of male-to-female and male-to-male USVs are similar, but the number of USVs during male-male encounter is smaller than male-female interactions (K. Zhao et al, 2021). The internal state behind USVs during male-male interactions are still not clear.…”

Beyond the three-chamber test: toward a multimodal and objective assessment of social behavior in rodents

“…However, mice predominantly emit USVs in social contexts with frequencies above 20 kHz. Mice USVs present many structurally and temporally complex acoustic features that can vary across developmental stage [ 10 , 90 , 105 , 156 ], genetic strains [ 157 , 158 ], gender [ 159 – 162 ], and social context [ 163 – 165 ] (Fig. 3 C).…”

“…Although USV emission in mice is innate [ 176 ], it is highly influenced by social experience. For example, the acoustic features and syllable variables of male USVs to females are affected by the receptivity of the female (specifically, its estrous state) [ 169 ], the state of the female (i.e., vivid, anesthetized, or urine only) [ 164 ], female presence [ 169 ], and prior sexual [ 177 ] and social experience [ 161 , 165 , 178 ]. Male courtship USVs were found to be mediated by a distinct neural population in the PAG connected to downstream premotor vocal-respiratory neurons in the nucleus retroambiguus to control the temporal and spectral features of the emitted USVs [ 179 ].…”