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

贫穷的环境，如小而贫瘠的笼子，可能会对动物之间的相互作用产生不利影响。生产力所需的互动(例如交配、产妇护理)可能会受到损害；反映或导致良好福利的互动(例如游戏)往往会减少；攻击性往往会增加。这适用于许多物种，但在实验室小鼠中，例如，在繁殖和饲养可存活的幼鼠方面，有丰富住所的老鼠比没有住所的老鼠更好，而且(特别是如果是雌性的)它们更少与笼子打架。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)行为不灵活(形成固定的例行公事、坚持下去、进行重复的、可预测的刻板行为的倾向)损害了对正常的社会、性和母性行为至关重要的灵活性；2)焦虑和抑郁的变化(快感缺失和消极判断偏见)减少了积极社交互动的动机，并导致倾向于将中性的社交暗示解读为威胁。*小鼠(C57BL/6、DBA/2和BALB/c)将被用作理想的模型：丰富影响它们的社会行为，它们的刻板印象经常伴随着坚持不懈，而雌性表现出社会学习、配偶选择、巢伴侣选择和社会缓冲(同种动物的存在减少了压力)。此外，每年约有3000万人用于研究，这使得改善他们的福利具有很大的影响力。我26岁的HQP将测试以下预测：a)富养雌性对笼子和入侵者不那么咄咄逼人；更善于在社会学习任务中展示信息；比起不育大的雌性，它们更喜欢作为笼友；比不育的雌性更能缓冲压力；b)富养的雄性对雌性更有吸引力，也能在交配的雌性中引起更好的母爱，比空巢雄性更好；c)富有的雌性是更好的母亲(例如，在取回幼崽的测试中速度更快，反应更灵敏)，怀孕/哺乳的雌性更喜欢富有的雌性，而不是不育的雌性作为公共筑巢伙伴。作为已发现的所有影响的潜在调节因素，我们将测试以下假设：i)饲养丰富的小鼠不那么坚持不懈(帮助它们对不断变化的社会信号做出适当的调整)，以及ii)饲养丰富的小鼠发现社会接触比不育的小鼠更有回报，威胁更小。*贫穷的环境如何影响社会互动，以前从未被系统地研究过，测试中的假设是新的。这项工作不仅适用于实验室的老鼠饲养者和群体管理者，而且还适用于农场、动物园和其他实验室动物，因为它确定了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。

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.**