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Original Research ARTICLE

This article is part of a Research Topic

Social enrichment during postnatal development induces transgenerational effects on emotional and reproductive behavior in mice

James P. Curley¹, Stephanie Davidson¹, Patrick Bateson² and Frances A. Champagne¹*

Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, Cambridge University, Madingley, Cambridge, UK

Across species there is evidence that the quality of the early social environment can have a profound impact on neurobiology and behavior. In the present study we explore the effect of communal rearing conditions (three dams with three litters per cage) during the postnatal period on offspring (F1) and grand-offspring (F2) anxiety-like and maternal behavior in Balb/c mice. Females rearing pups in communal nests exhibited increased levels of postpartum maternal care and communal rearing was found to abolish sex-differences in weaning weights. In adulthood, communally reared offspring were observed to display reduced anxiety-like behavior when placed in a novel environment. When rearing their own offspring under standard conditions, communally reared females demonstrated higher levels of motivation to retrieve pups, built higher quality nests, and exhibited higher levels of postpartum care compared to standard reared females. When exposed to an intruder male, communally reared females were more subordinate and less aggressive. F2 offspring of communally reared females were observed to engage in reduced anxiety-like behavior, have larger litter sizes and an increased frequency of nursing on PND 1. Analysis of neuropeptide receptor levels suggest that a communal rearing environment may exert sustained effects on behavior through modification of oxytocin and vasopressin (V1a) receptor densities. Though Balb-C mice are often considered “socially-incompetent” and high in anxiety-like behavior, our findings suggest that through enrichment of the postnatal environment, these behavioral and neuroendocrine deficits may be attenuated both within and across generations.

Keywords:

communal nesting, maternal care, anxiety, oxytocin, vasopressin, Balb/c

Citation:

Curley JP, Davidson S, Bateson P and Champagne FA (2009). Social enrichment during postnatal development induces transgenerational effects on emotional and reproductive behavior in mice. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 3:25. doi: 10.3389/neuro.08.025.2009

Received:

30 June 2009;

Paper pending published:

21 July 2009;

Accepted:

19 August 2009;

Published online:

15 September 2009.

Edited by:

Larry J. Young, Emory University School of Medicine, USA; Yerkes National Primate Research Center, USA

Reviewed by:

Igor Branchi, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Italy
Todd H. Ahern, Emory University, USA

© 2009 Curley, Davidson, Bateson and Champagne. This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.

*Correspondence:

Frances A. Champagne, Department of Psychology, Columbia University, Room 406 Schermerhorn Hall, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA. e-mail: fac2105@columbia.edu