Both maternal care and early peer-to-peer interactions shape adult social behaviour in the mouse

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Both maternal care and early peer-to-peer interactions shape adult social behaviour in the mouse Ivana D-Andrea1*, Francesca Cirulli1, Igor Branchi1 and Enrico Alleva1 1 Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Section of Behavioural Neurosciences, Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Italy The critical role of early social experiences in shaping brain function and behavior in humans has been widely investigated in animal models exploiting paradigms affecting mother-offspring interaction, such as maternal deprivation and handling. However, these paradigms overlook a second key factor shaping the adult social behavior: peer interactions. In order to investigate the contribution of both factors we developed a new paradigm: Communal Nest(CN), consists in a single nest where three mouse mothers keep their pups together and share care-giving behavior from birth to weaning and mimics the natural ecological niche of the mouse species. According to previous studies, in the CN nest, maternal care and peer interactions are markedly increased compared to mice reared in standard laboratory rearing conditions(SN). In the present study, with the purpose of having several rearing conditions characterized by different levels of maternal care and peer interactions, in each CN nest, the 3 mothers gave birth with an interval between two consecutive deliveries of 3 days. Thus, each CN nest was formed by 3 different groups of animals: oldest, intermediate and youngest pups. We assessed, during the first 14 days of life, maternal behavior and peer interactions and, at adulthood, social behavior in the three CN groups and in SN mice. With regard to maternal behavior, CN-intermediate mice received less care compared to CN-old, CN-young and SN mice. By contrast, SN mice showed lower levels of peer interactions compared to all CN groups. At adulthood, in a social interaction test, CN-oldest and CN-youngest mice appear to have more elaborate social competencies, displaying the behavioural profile of either dominant or subordinate after significantly shorter time compared to CN-intermediate and SN mice. These findings suggest that both maternal care and peer interactions are critical in shaping social competences at adulthood.Contributed by EU project INTELLIMAZE to FC and EA. Conference: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting, Rhodes Island, Greece, 13 Sep - 18 Sep, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster presentations Citation: D-Andrea I, Cirulli F, Branchi I and Alleva E (2009). Both maternal care and early peer-to-peer interactions shape adult social behaviour in the mouse. Conference Abstract: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.08.2009.09.127 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 08 Jun 2009; Published Online: 08 Jun 2009. * Correspondence: Ivana D-Andrea, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Section of Behavioural Neurosciences, Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Rome, Italy, ivana.dandrea@iss.it Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Ivana D-Andrea Francesca Cirulli Igor Branchi Enrico Alleva Google Ivana D-Andrea Francesca Cirulli Igor Branchi Enrico Alleva Google Scholar Ivana D-Andrea Francesca Cirulli Igor Branchi Enrico Alleva PubMed Ivana D-Andrea Francesca Cirulli Igor Branchi Enrico Alleva Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.