Abstract
Early life environment influences the development of various aspects of social behavior, particularly during sensitive developmental periods. We studied how challenges in the early postnatal period or (early) adolescence affect pro-social behavior. To this end, we designed a lever-operated liberation task, to be able to measure motivation to liberate a trapped conspecific (by progressively increasing required lever pressing for door-opening). Liberation of the trapped rat resulted either in social contact or in liberation into a separate compartment. Additionally, a condition was tested in which both rats could freely move in two separate compartments and lever pressing resulted in social contact. When partners were not trapped, rats were more motivated to press the lever for opening the door than in either of the trapped configurations. Contrary to our expectations, the trapped configuration resulted in a reduced motivation to act. Early postnatal stress (24 h maternal deprivation on postnatal day 3) did not affect behavior in the liberation task. However, rearing rats from early adolescence onwards in complex housing conditions (Marlau cages) reduced the motivation to door opening, both in the trapped and freely moving conditions, while the motivation for a sucrose reward was not affected.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 698501 |
Journal | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience |
Volume | 15 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 26 Aug 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Valeria Bonapersona, Jos Brits, Ruth Damsteegt and Jelle Knop for their assistance during experimental procedures. Funding. This work was supported by the Consortium on Individual Development (CID), which is funded through the Gravitation program of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, NWO grant number 024.001.003). MB-K was supported by the European Research Council (ERC AdG 669249); MI was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Spinoza Prize).
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Kalamari, Kentrop, Hinna Danesi, Graat, van IJzendoorn, Bakermans-Kranenburg, Joëls and van der Veen.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Funding
We thank Valeria Bonapersona, Jos Brits, Ruth Damsteegt and Jelle Knop for their assistance during experimental procedures. Funding. This work was supported by the Consortium on Individual Development (CID), which is funded through the Gravitation program of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, NWO grant number 024.001.003). MB-K was supported by the European Research Council (ERC AdG 669249); MI was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Spinoza Prize).
Funders | Funder number |
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Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science | |
European Research Council | 669249 |
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | 024.001.003 |
Keywords
- complex housing
- maternal deprivation model
- operant liberation task
- pro-social behavior
- pro-social decision making
- rats (all MESH terms)
- social development