Pair bond disruption in male prairie vole: Long-term effects on emotional behavior, physiology, and neurochemistry
Social relationships are essential for many fundamental aspects of life and influence behavior and physiology.Disruption to social bonds through separation or loss can be detrimental to mental and physical health.Male prairie voles form enduring social bonds with their female partners, providing a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact that partner loss has on behavior, physiology, and neurochemistry.In this study, males were paired with a novel female for 24 h, then evaluated for partner preference formation.Of those that displayed a partner preference, half were separated from their partner for 4 wk.A behavioral test battery was conducted to determine the effects of partner loss on social, anxiety-like, and depression-like behaviors.Partner loss significantly increased anxiety-like behaviors in the elevated plus maze and light-dark box tests and marginally increased depressive-like behaviors in the forced swim test.In addition, partner loss eliminated bond-related behaviors in a time-dependent manner.While partner preference was observed after 2 wk of partner loss, both partner preference and intruder-directed behaviors were eliminated after 4 wk partner loss.Oxytocin-immunoreactivity (-ir), vasopressin-ir, and corticotrophin-releasing hormone-ir density were all decreased in the paraventricular nucleus of separated males.Oxytocin-ir was decreased in the supraoptic nucleus, but dopamine-ir was not affected.In addition,body weight gain and plasma corticosterone concentrations were elevated throughout the 4 wk of partner loss, while no effects were observed for plasma oxytocin or vasopressin.Together, these data suggest that partner loss in male prairie voles elicits depression-like and anxiety-like behaviors, similar to bond loss in humans and social isolation in female prairie voles.In addition, partner loss disrupts bond-related behaviors, in a time-dependent manner, as well as neuropeptide systems that regulate social behavior.Thus, partner loss in male prairie voles may provide a model to better understand the behavior, pathology, and neurobiology underlying partner loss and grief.
HPA axis Vasopressin,Oxytocin,Corticotrophin releasing hormone,Tyrosine hydroxylase,PVN,pair bond disruption,emotional disorder,social stress
SUN Ping SMITH AS LIU Yan WANG Zuoxin
Animal Academy of Scientific and Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471 Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 3230
国内会议
长春
英文
205-219
2014-06-25（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）