Citation

Pittet F, Babb JA, Carini L, Nephew BC. Dev. Psychobiol. 2017; 59(3): 291-302.

Affiliation

Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University: Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, Massachusetts.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/dev.21491

PMID

28138966

Abstract

We investigated the consequences of chronic social instability (CSI) during adulthood on social and maternal behavior in females and social behavior of their offspring in a rat model. CSI consisted of changing the social partners of adult females every 2-3 days for 28 days, 2 weeks prior to mating. Females exposed to CSI behaved less aggressively and more pro-socially towards unfamiliar female intruders. Maternal care was not affected by CSI in a standard testing environment, but maternal behavior of CSI females was less disrupted by a male intruder. CSI females were quicker to attack prey and did not differ from control females in their saccharin consumption indicating, respectively, no stress-induced sensory-motor or reward system impairments. Offspring of CSI females exhibited slower growth and expressed more anxiety in social encounters. This study demonstrates continued adult vulnerability to social challenges with an impact specific to social situations for mothers and offspring.

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

epigenetics; maternal aggression; maternal care behavior; social behavior; social instability; stress