Social interactions in adolescent and adult Sprague–Dawley rats: Impact of social deprivation and test context familiarity
Open accessAbstract
Interactions with peers become particularly important during adolescence, and age differences in social interactions have been successfully modeled in rats. To determine the impact of social deprivation on social interactions under anxiogenic (unfamiliar) or non-anxiogenic (familiar) test circumstances during ontogeny, the present study used a modified social interaction test to assess the effects of 5 days of social isolation or group housing on different components of social behavior in early [postnatal day (P) 28], mid (P35), or late (P42) adolescent and adult (P70) male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. As expected, testing in an unfamiliar environment suppressed social interactions regardless of age, housing, and sex. Social deprivation drastically enhanced all forms of social behavior in P28 animals regardless of test situation, whereas depriving older animals of social interactions had more modest effects and was restricted predominantly to play fighting -- an adolescent-characteristic form of social interactions. Social investigation -- more adult-typical form of social behavior was relatively resistant to isolation-induced enhancement and was elevated in early adolescent isolates only. These findings confirm that different forms of social behavior are differentially sensitive to social deprivation across ontogeny.
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Different forms of social behavior in rats are differentially sensitive to social deprivation across ontogeny.
“previous studies in rats indicate that different forms of social behavior are differentially sensitive to social deprivation across ontogeny [80]”
From Behavioral Phenotyping of Juvenile Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley Rats: Implications for Preclinical Models of Autism Spectrum Disorders (2016) · cites this paper as [80]
Our results are consistent with previous studies suggesting that SD rats exhibit robust play levels in a variety of testing conditions.
“our results are consistent with previous studies suggesting that SD rats exhibit robust play levels in a variety of testing conditions paradigms [42,61,80].”
From Behavioral Phenotyping of Juvenile Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley Rats: Implications for Preclinical Models of Autism Spectrum Disorders (2016) · cites this paper as [80]
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- Authors
- VARLINSKAYA, E.
- Affiliations
- Binghamton University (US)
- Corresponding author
- VARLINSKAYA, E
- ORCID
- VARLINSKAYA, E
- Venue
- Behavioural Brain Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2008-04-09
- Volume
- 188
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 398-405
- ISSN
- 0166-4328 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3057041
- OpenAlex
- W2150483785
- Cited by
- 213
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 14.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Behavioural Brain Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01AA016887, R01AA012453)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA019071)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Keywords
- social deprivation, social isolation, social interaction, adolescent development, ontogeny, social investigation, play fighting, sex differences, Sprague-Dawley rats, housing conditions
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Analysis of Variance, Animals, Animals, Newborn, Behavior, Animal, Female, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Motor Activity, Social Isolation, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Recognition, Psychology, Rats
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