Vasopressin infusion into the lateral septum of adult male rats rescues progesterone-induced impairment in social recognition
Open accessAbstract
It is well established that social recognition memory is mediated, in part, by arginine vasopressin (AVP). AVP cells within the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) and medial amygdala (MeA) send AVP-ergic projections to the lateral septum (LS). We have demonstrated that progesterone treatment decreases AVP immunoreactivity within the BST, the MeA and the LS, and that progesterone treatment impairs social recognition. These data suggested that progesterone may impair social recognition memory by decreasing AVP. In the present experiment, we hypothesized that infusions of AVP into the LS would rescue the progesterone-induced impairment in social recognition within adult male rats. One week after adult male rats underwent cannula surgery, they were given systemic injections of either a physiological dose of progesterone or oil control for 3 days. Four hours after the last injection, we tested social recognition memory using the social discrimination paradigm, a two-trial test that is based on the natural propensity for rats to be highly motivated to investigate novel conspecifics. Immediately after the first exposure to a juvenile, each animal received bilateral infusions of either AVP or artificial cerebrospinal fluid into the LS. Our results show that, as expected, control animals exhibited normal social discrimination. In corroboration with our previous results, animals given progesterone have impaired social discrimination. Interestingly, animals treated with progesterone and AVP exhibited normal social discrimination, suggesting that AVP treatment rescued the impairment in social recognition caused by progesterone. These data also further support a role for progesterone in modulating vasopressin-dependent behavior within the male brain.
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The present study is the first to show effects on juvenile social play behavior following a transient neonatal manipulation of PRs.
“Although previous data have demonstrated that PRs regulate social behavior in adults [17, 25], the present study is the first to show effects on juvenile social play behavior following a transient neonatal manipulation of PRs.”
From Sex-specific effects of neonatal progestin receptor antagonism on juvenile social play behavior in rats (2021) · cites this paper as [25]
The Introduction and Discussion (pages unavailable) report that progesterone treatment impairs social recognition in adult male rats, supporting the cited sentence’s point about adult social behavior. The paper notes that relevant vasopressin cells contain progestin receptors, but it does not establish that the receptors themselves regulate that behavior. The claim about neonatal manipulation and juvenile play describes the citing authors’ present study, not this source. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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- Authors
- Bychowski, M. E., Mena, J. D., & Auger, C. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Venue
- Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-08
- Volume
- 246
- Pages
- 52-58
- ISSN
- 0306-4522 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3691302
- OpenAlex
- W2058960403
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 4 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 6.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health, National Research Service Award (T32 Gm007507)
- National Science Foundation (IOS-1122074)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- vasopressin, progesterone, social recognition memory, social discrimination, lateral septum, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, medial amygdala, male rats
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Animals, Male, Progesterone, Septal Nuclei, Social Behavior, Vasopressins, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Recognition, Psychology, Rats, Infusions, Intraventricular
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