title: Social isolation effects on the "behavioral despair" forced swimming test: effect of age and duration of testing.
abstract: Social loss is considered to be one of the major precipitants of depression. Prior work with the Porsolt forced swimming test (FST) has failed to demonstrate increases in despair-like immobility as a result of prior social isolation in adult animals. In the present work, increased immobility was observed in young Swiss Webster mice that had been socially isolated for 24 h prior to a 15-minute FST. The effect was not apparent until after the first five minutes of testing. The increase in immobility as a result of social isolation was apparent in 17-21-day-old animals but not in 26-30-day-old ones. Control experiments indicated that the increase in immobility was not due to the slightly higher weight loss of the socially isolated animals. Administration of reserpine (0.25 mg/kg) induced a marginal increase in immobility in the youngest animals but decreased immobility at later ages. These data suggest that the mouse only exhibits a short period of time during early development where social isolation can promote despair-like immobility in the FST and suggest that analyses of depressive processes which result from social variables may be best studied during a limited age range in this species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, OH 43403.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yates
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Panksepp
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ikemoto
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Conner
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D001143:Arousal / Q000187:drug effects; D001833:Body Temperature Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D005508:Food Deprivation; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009042:Motivation; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D012110:Reserpine / Q000494:pharmacology; D012931:Social Environment; D012934:Social Isolation; D013550:Swimming
chemical_list: D012110:Reserpine