Abstract
Background: Maladaptive aggression in humans is associated with several psychiatric conditions and lacks effective treatment. Nevertheless, tightly regulated aggression is essential for survival throughout the animal kingdom. Studying how social dominance hierarchies regulate aggression and access to resources in an enriched environment (EE) can narrow the translational gap between aggression in animal models and normal and pathological human behavior. Methods: The social box is a seminatural setup for automatic and prolonged monitoring of mouse group dynamics. We utilized the social box to decipher tradeoffs between aggression, social avoidance, resource allocation, and dominance in 2 mouse models of increased aggression: 1) a model of early exposure to an EE and 2) a model of oxytocin receptor deficiency (Oxtr−/−). While environmental enrichment increases aggression as an adaptive response to external stimuli, hyperaggression in Oxtr−/− mice is accompanied by marked abnormalities in social behavior. Results: EE groups exhibited significant social avoidance, and an increased proportion of their encounters developed into aggressive interactions, resulting in lower levels of exploratory activity and overall aggression. The hierarchy in EE groups was more stable than in control groups, and dominance was correlated with access to resources. In Oxtr−/− groups, mice engaged in excessive social encounters and aggressive chasing, accompanied by increased overall activity. In Oxtr−/− groups, dominance hierarchies existed but were not correlated with access to resources. Conclusions: Measuring aggression and social dominance hierarchies in a seminatural setup reveals the adaptive value of aggression in EE and Oxtr−/− mice. This approach can enhance translational research on pathological aggression.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 100399 |
| Journal | Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 1 Oct 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2025 |
Funding
This work was conducted at the Ruhman Family Laboratory for Research on the Neurobiology of Stress and was supported by research grants (to AC) from Bruno and Simone Licht; the Leff Family; the Irving B. Harris Fund for New Directions in Brain Research; the Joseph D. Shane Fund for Neurosciences; the Estate of Ethel Lena Levy; the Benoziyo Endowment Fund for the Advancement of Science; the Estate of Hermine Miller; the Estate of Gertrude Buchler; the Estate of Marjorie Plesset; the Estate of Zvia Zeroni; the Estate of Olga Klein Astrachan; the Estate of Gerald Alexander; and the the Anita James Rosen Foundation. YSh is the incumbent of the Hugo Enrique Gerber Research Fellow Chair in Neurosciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science. AC is the incumbent of the Vera and John Schwartz Family Professorial Chair in Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. A previous version of this article was published as a preprint on bioRxiv: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.25.591070. The authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest. A.C. is the incumbent of the Vera and John Schwartz Family Professorial Chair in Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. This work was supported by the Ruhman Family Laboratory for Research on the Neurobiology of Stress (to A.C.); research support from Bruno and Simone Licht; the Perlman Family Foundation, founded by Louis L. and Anita M. Perlman (to A.C.); the Adelis Foundation (to A.C.); and Sonia T. Marschak (to A.C.). Y.S. is the incumbent of the Hugo Enrique Gerber Research Fellow Chair in Neurosciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Psychiatry and Mental health
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