title: Social isolation prompts maternal behavior in sexually naïve male ddN mice.
abstract: Maternal behavior in mice is considered to be sexually dimorphic; that is, females show maternal care for their offspring, whereas this behavior is rarely shown in males. Here, we examined how social isolation affects the interaction of adult male mice with pups. Three weeks of isolation during puberty (5-8 weeks old) induced retrieving and crouching when exposed to pups, while males with 1 week isolation (7-8 weeks old) also showed such maternal care, but were less responsive to pups. We also examined the effect of isolation during young adulthood (8-11 weeks old), and found an induction of maternal behavior comparable to that in younger male mice. This effect was blocked by exposure to chemosensory and auditory social signals derived from males in an attached compartment separated by doubled opaque barriers. These results demonstrate that social isolation in both puberty and postpuberty facilitates male maternal behavior in sexually naïve mice. The results also indicate that air-borne chemicals and/or sounds of male conspecifics, including ultrasonic vocalization and noise by their movement may be sufficient to interfere with the isolation effect on induction of maternal behavior in male mice.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Medical Science, Nippon Medical School, Kanagawa 211-8533, Japan. Electronic address: orikasa@nms.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Chitose
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Orikasa
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 183-0054, Japan.
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagaoka
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Medical Science, Nippon Medical School, Kanagawa 211-8533, Japan.
authors.forename: Harumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Katsumata
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, Teikyo University of Science, Tokyo 120-0045, Japan.
authors.forename: Manami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, Teikyo University of Science, Tokyo 120-0045, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuhiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Medical Science, Nippon Medical School, Kanagawa 211-8533, Japan.
authors.forename: Shiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Minami
authors.affiliation: University of Tokyo Health Science, Tokyo 206-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakuma
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains / Q000523:psychology*; D009043:Motor Activity; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D012934:Social Isolation / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Chemosensory; Maternal behavior; Puberty; Social isolation; ddN male mice