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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.06.04.134437

Wistar rats and C57BL/6J mice differ in their motivation to seek social interaction versus food in the Social versus Food Preference Test

Reppucci, C. J.·Brown, L. A.·Chambers, A. Q.·Veenema, A. H.
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Abstract

Here we characterized the Social versus Food Preference Test, a behavioral paradigm designed to investigate the competition between the choice to seek social interaction versus the choice to seek food. We assessed how this competition was modulated by internal cues (social isolation, food deprivation), external cues (time-of-testing, stimulus salience), sex (males, females), age (adolescents, adults), and rodent model (Wistar rats, C57BL/6J mice). We found that changes in stimulus preference in response to the internal and external cue manipulations were similar across cohorts. Specifically, social over food preference scores were reduced by food deprivation and social familiarly in Wistar rats and C57BL/6J mice of both sexes. Interestingly, the degree of food deprivation-induced changes in stimulus investigation patterns were greater in adolescents compared to adults in Wistar rats and C57BL/6J mice. Strikingly, baseline stimulus preference and investigation times varied greatly between rodent models: across manipulations, Wistar rats were generally more social-preferring and C57BL/6J mice were generally more food-preferring. Adolescent Wistar rats spent more time investigating the social and food stimuli than adult Wistar rats, while adolescent and adult C57BL/6J mice investigated the stimuli a similar amount. Neither social isolation nor time-of-testing altered behavior in the Social versus Food Preference Test. Together, our results indicate that the Social versus Food Preference Test is a flexible behavioral paradigm suitable for future interrogations of the peripheral and central systems that can coordinate the expression of stimulus preference related to multiple motivated behaviors. HIGHLIGHTSO_LIRats prefer social over food when sated, and this is attenuated by food deprivation. C_LIO_LIMice have no preference when sated, and prefer food over social when food-deprived. C_LIO_LIRats prefer a familiar social stimulus or a novel social stimulus over food. C_LIO_LIMice prefer food over a familiar social stimulus. C_LIO_LIAdolescent rats investigate social and food stimuli longer than adult rats. C_LI GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=82 SRC="FIGDIR/small/134437v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (13K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b23f85org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@168732eorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@61e431org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@cc848e_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

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Reppucci, C. J., Brown, L. A., Chambers, A. Q., Veenema, A. H.. 2020-06-05. Wistar rats and C57BL/6J mice differ in their motivation to seek social interaction versus food in the Social versus Food Preference Test. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.04.134437

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