Complex Housing, but Not Maternal Deprivation Affects Motivation to Liberate a Trapped Cage-Mate in an Operant Rat Task

Aikaterini Kalamari, Jiska Kentrop, Chiara Hinna Danesi, Evelien A.M. Graat, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian Joëls, Rixt van der Veen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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 languageEnglish
Article number698501
JournalFrontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Volume15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 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).

FundersFunder number
Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science
European Research Council669249
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek024.001.003

    Keywords

    • complex housing
    • maternal deprivation model
    • operant liberation task
    • pro-social behavior
    • pro-social decision making
    • rats (all MESH terms)
    • social development

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