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: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=690288
• 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 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 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.**

贫瘠的环境，比如小而贫瘠的笼子，会对动物之间的互动产生不利影响。生产力所需的相互作用（如交配、孕产妇保健）可能受到损害；反映或带来良好福利的互动（如游戏）经常减少；攻击性往往会增加。这对许多物种来说都成立，但以实验室老鼠为例，在繁殖和抚养幼崽方面，饲养丰富的老鼠比饲养贫瘠的老鼠更好，而且（尤其是雌性老鼠）它们与笼子里的同伴打架的次数更少。因此，我将研究行为、认知以及类似焦虑和抑郁的变化（快感缺乏症和负面判断偏见）是如何降低积极社会互动的动机，并导致将中性社会暗示解读为威胁的倾向。***小鼠（C57Bl/6, DBA/2）在社会学习任务中表现出更强的信息表达能力，比不育雌鼠更倾向于作为笼内配偶，并且比不育雌鼠有更好的应激缓冲能力；c)营养丰富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），怀孕/哺乳期的雌性更喜欢营养丰富的雌性，而不是不育的雌性作为共同筑巢的伴侣。作为发现的所有效应的潜在媒介，我们将测试以下假设：1)富营养小鼠的持久性较差（帮助它们对不断变化的社会信号做出适当的调整），以及2)富营养小鼠比无营养饲养的小鼠更能发现社会接触的回报和威胁。***贫困的环境如何影响社会互动从未被系统地调查过，并且所测试的假设是新颖的。这项工作具有广泛的应用，不仅适用于实验室老鼠饲养者和群体管理者，还适用于农场、动物园和其他实验室动物，通过确定环境改善是通过减少社会问题来提高生产力和福利的潜在途径