Ameliorative effects of brief daily periods of social interaction on isolation-induced behavioral and hormonal alterations.
Physiol Behav 2013;
116-117:13-22. [PMID:
23535244 DOI:
10.1016/j.physbeh.2013.03.009]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2012] [Revised: 02/24/2013] [Accepted: 03/13/2013] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The present study investigated the effects of brief daily periods of social interaction on social-isolation-induced behavioral and hormonal alterations and deficits. Adult male Wistar rats were allocated to one of three housing conditions: 1) social housing (two per cage); 2) social isolation (one per cage); or partial social isolation (one per cage with access to another male rat for 60 min/day). After 14 days in these different housing conditions, the animals were subjected to various behavioral tests, including sucrose preference test, acoustic startle response, two-way active shuttle avoidance, pre-pulse inhibition, open field, cooperation learning task, and levels of corticosterone. Results revealed that social isolation had a substantial impact on rats' performance on most behavioral tests as well as on their corticosterone levels. Importantly, however, the results clearly demonstrate that allowing otherwise isolated animals to have a brief (60 min) daily social contact with another rat to a great extent abolishes or ameliorates most of the isolation-induced behavioral and hormonal alterations. Hence, providing isolated animals with brief daily periods of social contact may be used as a "preventive treatment" in order to protect them from the deleterious effects of isolation.
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