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: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=710002
• 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.

贫穷的环境（例如小贫瘠的笼子）会对动物彼此的相互作用产生不利影响。 生产力所需的相互作用（例如交配，孕产妇护理）可能会受到损害；反映或引起良好福利（例如比赛）的互动经常下降；侵略通常会增加。这适用于许多物种，但是在实验室小鼠中，富集的海上小鼠比贫瘠的幼体小鼠在产生和饲养可行的幼犬时（尤其是雌性）与cagemates的战斗较少。因此，我将研究行为，认知和2）焦虑和抑郁症的变化（Anhedonia和负面判断偏见）如何减少积极社会互动的动机，并使倾向将中性社会线索解释为威胁性。 小鼠（C57BL/6，DBA/2更好地展示社会学习任务中的信息；比贫瘠的女性更喜欢作为笼子男友；比贫瘠的妇女更好的压力缓冲; b）丰富的男性对女性更具吸引力，并且对女性更具吸引力，并且在那些与男子群体相比，比起ballen骨的雄性雄鹿的孕妇也更具孕妇照料； c）丰富的女性是更好的母亲（例如，在幼犬检索测试中更快，反应迅速），而怀孕/哺乳的雌性更喜欢富裕的女性而不是贫瘠的女性作为公共巢穴伴侣。正如发现所有效果的潜在介体一样，我们将测试i）富集小鼠的持久性（帮助他们对不断变化的社交信号进行适当调整）的假设，而II）II）丰富的小鼠发现社会接触比贫瘠的小鼠更有意义，威胁性更高。 贫穷的环境如何损害社会互动从未有系统地研究，并且测试的假设是新颖的。这项工作不仅针对实验室小鼠育种者和殖民地经理，而且还针对农场，动物园和其他实验室动物，通过识别环境改善，这是通过减少社会问题来提高生产力和福利的潜在方法。