Journal
BEHAVIOURAL BRAIN RESEARCH
Volume 365, Issue -, Pages 170-177Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2019.03.011
Keywords
Social isolation; Adulthood; Anxiety; Spatial working memory; c-Fos; Cytochrome c oxidase
Categories
Funding
- Project Grants of Gobierno de Espana [PSI2017-83893-R, MINECOPSI2015-73111-EXP, PSI2017-90806-REDT]
- Programa Severo Ochoa de Ayudas Predoctorales de la CONSEJERIA DE CULTURA Y DEPORTE del Principado de Asturias [PA-18-PF-BP17-011]
- Gobierno de Aragon (Departamento de Innovation, Investigation y Universidad)
- FEDER Construyendo Europa desde Aragon
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Social isolation during adulthood is a frequent problem that leads to a large variety of adverse emotional and cognitive effects. However, most of the social isolation rodent procedures begin the separation early postweaning. This work explores locomotor activity, anxiety-like behaviour, and spatial working memory after twelve weeks of adult social isolation. In order to study the functional contribution of selected brain areas following a working memory task, we assessed neuronal metabolic activity through quantitative cytochrome oxidase histochemistry and c-Fos immunohistochemistry. Behaviourally, we found that isolated animals (IS) showed anxiety-like behaviour and worse working memory than controls, whereas motor functions were preserved. Moreover, IS rats showed lower levels of learning-related c-Fos immunoreactivity, compared to controls, in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), ventral tegmental area (VTA), and nucleus accumbens shell. In addition, the IS group showed lower neuronal metabolic activity in the mPFC, VTA, and CA1 subfield of the hippocampus. These results indicate that twelve weeks of social isolation in adult rats leads to different behavioural and brain alterations, and they highlight the importance of social support, not only in development, but also in adulthood.
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