title: Ameliorative effects of brief daily periods of social interaction on isolation-induced behavioral and hormonal alterations.
abstract: The present study investigated the effects of brief daily periods of social interaction on social-isolation-induced behavioral and hormonal alterations and deficits. Adult male Wistar rats were allocated to one of three housing conditions: 1) social housing (two per cage); 2) social isolation (one per cage); or partial social isolation (one per cage with access to another male rat for 60 min/day). After 14 days in these different housing conditions, the animals were subjected to various behavioral tests, including sucrose preference test, acoustic startle response, two-way active shuttle avoidance, pre-pulse inhibition, open field, cooperation learning task, and levels of corticosterone. Results revealed that social isolation had a substantial impact on rats' performance on most behavioral tests as well as on their corticosterone levels. Importantly, however, the results clearly demonstrate that allowing otherwise isolated animals to have a brief (60 min) daily social contact with another rat to a great extent abolishes or ameliorates most of the isolation-induced behavioral and hormonal alterations. Hence, providing isolated animals with brief daily periods of social contact may be used as a "preventive treatment" in order to protect them from the deleterious effects of isolation.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, The Center for Psychobiological Research, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Israel. sivanr@yvc.ac.il
authors.forename: Sivan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Raz
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000097:blood; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000502:physiology; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000502:physiology*; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology*; D012934:Social Isolation; D013395:Sucrose / Q000008:administration & dosage; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage
chemical_list: D013549:Sweetening Agents; D013395:Sucrose; D003345:Corticosterone