Why is social behaviour in animals adversely affected by barren housing conditions?

为什么动物的社会行为会受到贫瘠的居住条件的不利影响？

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-05828
• 负责人: Mason, Georgia
• 金额: $ 3.72万
• 依托单位: University of Guelph
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=615927
• 关键词: Why; social; behaviour; animals; adversely

Impoverished environments, such as small barren cages, can adversely affect animals' interactions with each other. Interactions needed for productivity (e.g. mating, maternal care) can be impaired; interactions that reflect or cause good welfare (e.g. play) often decline; and aggression often increases. This holds for many species, but in laboratory mice, for instance, enriched-housed mice are better than barren-housed mice at producing and raising viable pups, and (especially if female) they fight less with cagemates. I will therefore investigate how the behavioural, cognitive & affective effects of being raised in barren environments impede social behaviour. My hypotheses are that 1) behavioural inflexibility (tendencies to form fixed routines, 'perseverate', and perform repetitive, predictable stereotypic behaviour) compromises the flexibility crucial for normal social, sexual & maternal behaviour; and 2) anxiety- and depression-like changes (anhedonia and negative judgment biases) reduce motivations for positive social interactions and cause predispositions to interpret neutral social cues as threatening. Mice (C57Bl/6, DBA/2 & BALB/c) will be used as ideal models: enrichment affects their social behaviour, their stereotypies often covary with perseveration, and females exhibit social learning, mate choice, nest-mate choice, & social buffering (where the presence of a conspecific reduces stress). Further, about 30 million are used in research each year, making improving their welfare highly impactful. My 26 HQP will test the predictions that a) enriched-raised females are less aggressive to cagemates & intruders; better at demonstrating information in social learning tasks; preferred over barren-raised females as cage-mates; and better ‘stress buffers’ than barren-raised females; b) enriched-raised males are more attractive to females, and also induce better maternal care in those that they mate, than barren-housed males; and c) enriched females are better mothers (e.g. faster & more responsive in pup retrieval tests), and that pregnant/lactating females prefer enriched females to barren-raised females as communal nesting partners. As potential mediators of all effects found, we will test the hypotheses that i) enriched mice are less perseverative (helping them make appropriate adjustments to changing social signals), and that ii) enriched mice find social contact more rewarding and less threatening than do barren-reared mice. How impoverished environments compromise social interactions has never before been systematically investigated, and the hypotheses under test are novel. This work has broad application, not just for laboratory mouse breeders & colony managers, but beyond to farm, zoo & other laboratory animals, via identifying environmental improvements as potential ways to boost both productivity and welfare by reducing social problems.

贫困的环境，例如狭小的贫瘠笼子，可能会对动物之间的互动产生不利影响。生产力所需的互动（例如交配、产妇护理）可能会受到损害；反映或带来良好福利的互动（例如玩耍）往往会减少；并且攻击性往往会增加。这适用于许多物种，但例如，在实验室小鼠中，富养的小鼠比贫瘠的小鼠在生产和饲养可存活的幼崽方面表现更好，而且（特别是雌性）它们与笼中同伴的争斗较少。因此，我将研究在贫瘠环境中长大的行为、认知和情感影响如何阻碍社会行为。我的假设是：1）行为缺乏灵活性（倾向于形成固定的惯例，“坚持”，并执行重复的、可预测的刻板行为）损害了对正常社会、性和母性行为至关重要的灵活性； 2）类似焦虑和抑郁的变化（快感缺乏和消极判断偏差）会减少积极社交互动的动机，并导致将中性社交线索解释为威胁的倾向。 小鼠（C57Bl/6、DBA/2 和 BALB/c）将被用作理想模型：丰富性会影响它们的社会行为，它们的刻板印象通常会随着坚持而变化，雌性表现出社交学习、配偶选择、巢伴侣选择和社交缓冲（同种动物的存在可以减轻压力）。此外，每年约有 3000 万美元用于研究，这使得改善他们的福利具有非常大的影响力。我的 26 HQP 将测试以下预测：a) 富裕饲养的雌性对笼内同伴和入侵者的攻击性较小；更好地展示社交学习任务中的信息；作为笼中伴侣，比不育的雌性更受青睐；比不育的雌性有更好的“压力缓冲”； b) 与贫瘠环境中饲养的雄性相比，在富裕环境中饲养的雄性对雌性更具吸引力，并且还能为它们的交配对象带来更好的母性照顾； c) 富裕的雌性是更好的母亲（例如，在幼崽检索测试中速度更快、反应更灵敏），并且怀孕/哺乳期的雌性更喜欢富裕的雌性而不是不育的雌性作为公共筑巢伙伴。作为所有效应的潜在中介因素，我们将检验以下假设：i) 富集小鼠的毅力较弱（帮助它们对不断变化的社交信号做出适当调整），以及 ii) 富集小鼠发现社交接触比贫瘠饲养的小鼠更有价值，威胁更小。 以前从未系统地研究过贫困环境如何损害社会互动，而且所测试的假设也是新颖的。这项工作具有广泛的应用，不仅适用于实验室小鼠饲养员和群体管理者，而且适用于农场、动物园和其他实验动物，通过将环境改善确定为通过减少社会问题来提高生产力和福利的潜在方法。