Data from: Perinatal and juvenile social environments interact to shape cognitive behaviour and neural phenotype in prairie voles

Social environments experienced at different developmental stages profoundly shape adult behavioural and neural phenotypes, and may have important interactive effects. We asked if social experience before and after weaning influenced adult social cognition in male prairie voles. Animals were raised either with or without fathers and then either housed singly or in sibling pairs. Males that were socially deprived before (fatherless) and after (singly housed) weaning did not demonstrate social recognition or dissociate spatial from social information. We also examined oxytocin and vasopressin receptors (OTR and V1aR) in areas of the forebrain associated with social behaviour and memory. Pre- and post-wean experience differentially altered receptor expression in several structures. Of note, OTR in the lateral septum—an area in which oxytocin inhibits social recognition—was greatest in animals that did not clearly demonstrate social recognition. The combination of absentee fathers on V1aR in the retrosplenial cortex and single housing on OTR in the septohippocampal nucleus produced a unique phenotype previously found to be associated with poor reproductive success in nature. We demonstrate that interactive effects of early life experiences throughout development have tremendous influence over brain–behaviour phenotype and can buffer potentially negative outcomes due to social deprivation.

个体在不同发育阶段所经历的社会环境，会深刻塑造成年后的行为与神经表型，且可能产生重要的交互效应。本研究旨在探究断奶前后的社会经历是否会影响雄性草原田鼠的成年社会认知能力。实验动物被分为两种育幼模式：有父本陪伴或无父本陪伴，后续再分别被安排单笼饲养或与同胞配对饲养。断奶前（无父本陪伴）且断奶后（单笼饲养）均遭受社会剥夺的雄性个体，既无法表现出正常的社会识别能力，也无法区分空间信息与社会信息。我们还检测了与社会行为及记忆相关的前脑区域内的催产素受体（oxytocin receptor, OTR）与血管加压素受体（vasopressin receptor, V1aR）的表达水平。断奶前与断奶后的社会经历，会对多个脑区的受体表达产生差异性调控。值得注意的是，外侧隔核——该脑区中催产素会抑制社会识别行为——内的OTR表达水平，在无法清晰表现出社会识别能力的个体中达到峰值。父本缺失对扣带回后部皮质内V1aR的调控，与单笼饲养对隔海马核内OTR的调控相结合，会产生一种独特的表型——此前研究表明该表型与野外种群较低的繁殖成功率显著相关。本研究证实，贯穿整个发育阶段的早期生活经历所产生的交互效应，会对脑-行为表型产生极强的调控作用，并且能够缓冲社会剥夺所带来的潜在负面后果。