Twelve hours is sufficient for social buffering of conditioned hyperthermia

We previously reported that in male rats, 24 h of social housing with an associate male rat immediately following fear conditioning attenuated conditioned hyperthermia in response to an auditory conditioned stimulus. In this study, we investigated the time window and threshold of social housing where social buffering mitigates conditioned hyperthermia. When 6 h of social housing immediately followed the conditioning procedure, attenuation of conditioned hyperthermia did not occur. However, an 18-h social housing period that started 6 h after the conditioning procedure successfully blocked the subsequent hyperthermia, as was observed in our previous study. We also shortened the duration of social housing and found that a 12-h, but not a 6-h, period of social housing mitigated the subsequent hyperthermia. In addition, a 24-h social housing period that started 24 h after the conditioning procedure mitigated the hyperthermia. These results suggest that 12 h is sufficient for social buffering of conditioned hyperthermia. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.