Biology subjects

Malone, C. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Malone, C. A..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Access to running wheels decreases social motivation in adult C57BL/6J female mice

Physical activity offers myriad benefits to health and well-being, in humans and other animals as well. In rodents, voluntary wheel running can attenuate the effects of both physical and social stressors on rodent social behavior. Whether wheel running affects rodent social behaviors per se remains less well understood. We conducted the current study to test whether home cage access to running wheels impacts the social behaviors of adult, group-housed C57BL/6J female mice during same-sex interactions with novel females. Group-housed females were either given continuous home cage running wheel access or a standard paper hut starting at weaning, and as adults, social behaviors were measured during interactions with novel females. In two cohorts, we found that 5 weeks of running wheel access during adolescence reduced the time that subject females spent investigating a novel female and also tended to reduce total ultrasonic vocalizations produced during interactions. These effects were not reversed by a 2-week period of running wheel removal but were recapitulated in a different cohort by 2 weeks of running wheel access in adulthood. Unexpectedly, we found that these effects on female social behavior were not due to wheel running per se, because females raised from weaning with immobile running wheels also showed low rates of social behaviors during same-sex interactions in adulthood. Overall, we find that the presence of a running wheel in the home cage has an enduring inhibitory influence on female social behavior during same-sex interactions, a finding that has implications for the design of studies that include same-sex interactions between female mice.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2025

Same-sex mounting in single-housed C57BL/6J female mice is not regulated by estrous state

Female-female mounting is widespread in mammals. Although the factors that regulate the display of female-female mounting likely vary according to species and to behavioral context, a large body of work has investigated the relationship of female-female mounting to female hormonal status. While this relationship has been well explored in ovariectomized and hormonally manipulated female rodents, less is known about the potential relationship between female-female mounting and estrous state in naturally cycling female rodents. Recent studies found that short-term social isolation robustly promotes same-sex mounting in C57BL/6J female mice. In the current study, we tested whether displays of female-female mounting by naturally cycling single-housed C57BL/6J females during interactions with naturally cycling, group-housed stimulus females depend on the estrous state of either female (n = 34 independent pairs). We found that the likelihood of mounting by single-housed females did not differ according to their estrous state. Moreover, single-housed females displayed mounting in trials that included receptive stimulus females, as well as in trials that included non-receptive stimulus females, and same-sex mounting was observed across all resident-stimulus female estrous state combinations. These findings indicate that same-sex mounting by single-housed C57BL/6J females is not coupled to the estrous state of either female in the pair. Future work remains to determine the factors that regulate the occurrence of female-female mounting in this species and behavioral context.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2024

Rates of female mouse ultrasonic vocalizations are low and are not modulated by estrous state during interactions with muted males

Vocalizations produced during courtship can communicate signaler attributes and facilitate mating success. Adult male mice produce high rates of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during courtship interactions with females. For many decades, it was thought that only males produced courtship USVs, but recent studies using microphone arrays to assign USVs to individual signalers report that female mice produce a portion (5-18%) of total courtship USVs. The factors that regulate courtship USV production by female mice are poorly understood. In this study, we tested the idea that female courtship USV production is regulated by estrous state. To facilitate the detection of female USVs, we paired female subjects with males that were muted for USV production via ablation of midbrain neurons that are required for USV production but not for male sexual motivation. We report that total USVs recorded during interactions between group-housed B6 background female mice and muted males are low and are not modulated by female estrous state. Similar results were obtained for single-housed B6 background females and for single-housed outbred wild-derived female mice paired with muted males. These findings suggest either that female mice produce substantial rates of courtship USVs only when interacting with vocal male partners or that prior studies have overestimated female courtship USV production. Studies employing methods that can unambiguously assign USVs to individual signalers, regardless of inter-mouse distances, are needed to distinguish between these possibilities.

animal behavior and cognition↗