Conditions of Housing, Hormones, and Aggressive Behavior

Brain, Paul F.; Benton, David

doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-3521-4_13

Cited by 44 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 106 publications

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“…This occurs sporadically during the active periods, and intensively after eating (Brown, 1953;Crawley, 2000). Self-grooming is important for hygiene and insulation (Crawley, 2000), while allo-grooming maintains social relationships (Brain and Benton, 1983;Brown, 1985), and assists the transfer of information about food stuffs (Crawley, 2000).…”

Section: Behaviour Within the Territory: Stable Routines In A Varyingmentioning

confidence: 99%

From house mouse to mouse house: the behavioural biology of free-living Mus musculus and its implications in the laboratory

Latham

Mason

2004

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

293

236

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Understanding a species' behaviour in natural conditions can give insights into its development, responses and welfare in captivity. Here, we review research and pest control literatures on the free-living house mouse (Mus musculus), analysing its sensory world, developmental processes and behaviour to suggest how laboratory environments might affect mouse welfare, normalcy, test design, and behaviour. Mouse development from foetus to weaning is influenced by prenatal stress and nutrient levels, and post-natal litter size and other factors affecting maternal care, all with lasting effects on adult bodyweight, aggression, activity levels, stress responsiveness and masculinisation. These influences may well be important in the laboratory, for example unwittingly differing between facilities leading to site-differences in phenotype. Murine senses are dominated by olfactory, auditory and tactile cues. Their hearing extends into the ultrasonic, and vision, from mid-range wavelengths to the ultraviolet. In mouse facilities, behaviour and welfare may therefore also be affected by sensory stimuli unnoticed by humans. The physical and social environment and behaviour of wild mice differ greatly from those of laboratory mice. Dispersal age varies with resource-levels and social cues, and mice often either live alone or in family groups. Mice occupy territories/ranges measuring a few square meters to several square kilometers, and which allow running, climbing, and burrowing. Mice are often active during dawn/dusk, and spend their time patrolling their territories, investigating neighbours' odour cues, foraging, finding mates and rearing litters. The potential impact of these many differences and restrictions on laboratory mouse development, normalcy and welfare has only begun to be explored.

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Section: Behaviour Within the Territory: Stable Routines In A Varyingmentioning

confidence: 99%

From house mouse to mouse house: the behavioural biology of free-living Mus musculus and its implications in the laboratory

Latham

Mason

2004

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

293

236

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“…Barnard et al 1991;Kaliste-Korhonen & Eskola 2000), endocrine (e.g. Brain & Benton 1983) and immune (e.g. Bohus & Koolhaas 1991) indices of stress as a consequence of aggressive interactions between cage-mates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

NPY‐Y1 coexpressed with NPY‐Y5 receptors modulate anxiety but not mild social stress response in mice

Longo

Oberto

Marrama

et al. 2015

Genes Brain and Behavior

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The Y1 and Y5 receptors for neuropeptide Y have overlapping functions in regulating anxiety. We previously demonstrated that conditional removal of the Y1 receptor in the Y5 receptor expressing neurons in juvenile Npy1r Y5R−/− mice leads to higher anxiety but no changes in hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity, under basal conditions or after acute restraint stress. In the present study, we used the same conditional system to analyze the specific contribution of limbic neurons coexpressing Y1 and Y5 receptors on the emotional and neuroendocrine responses to social chronic stress, using different housing conditions (isolation vs. group-housing) as a model. We demonstrated that control Npy1r 2lox male mice housed in groups show increased anxiety and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity compared with Npy1r 2lox mice isolated for six weeks immediately after weaning. Conversely, Npy1r Y5R−/− conditional mutants display an anxious-like behavior but no changes in hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity as compared with their control littermates, independently of housing conditions. These results suggest that group housing constitutes a mild social stress for our B6129S mouse strain and they confirm that the conditional inactivation of Y1 receptors specifically in Y5 receptor containing neurons increases stress-related anxiety without affecting endocrine stress responses.

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“…Since it is known that defeat decreases levels of plasm testosterone, weights of the testes, seminal vesicles, and the preputial gland, and increases adrenal gland weights (see Brain and Benton, 1983, for review), it was thought to be important to assess if crowded, but never-defeated males showed changes in these physiological and anatomical parameters. …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in aggressive behavior and anatomo-physiological correlates generated by crowding without physical contact in the house mouse

et al. 1989

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Behavioral, physiological (i.e., endocrine), and anatomical consequences of crowding in mice were studied in a situation where animals were in auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile contact but restrained from full physical interactions, to prevent overt aggression. Males that cohabited with females undisturbed by neighboring conspecifics showed greater propensity to attack same‐sex intruders and had higher plasma testosterone levels than did their “crowded” counterparts, that is, males cohabiting with females and housed adjacent to other male/female pairs. In this respect, the latter animals resembled submissive males. However, a significant increase in weight of androgen‐dependent target organs (i.e., seminal vesicles and preputial glands) was found in crowded males. These data indicate that despite the observed inhibition of social aggression these males are not physiologically comparable (homologous) to male mice that experienced defeat and the stress of submission during fighting. The intriguing possibility that different conversion pathway of testosterone are accelerated, as a result of social communication, in males living in these two environments and the behavioral implications of these possibilities are discussed. Finally, the parental behavior of crowded animals, although not freely interacting with each other, was disrupted, causing a marked decrease in reproductive success. In this situation a high incidence of infanticide of their offspring by both parents was observed, whereas this behavior was virtually absent in non‐crowded male/female pairs.

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Conditions of Housing, Hormones, and Aggressive Behavior

Cited by 44 publications

References 106 publications

From house mouse to mouse house: the behavioural biology of free-living Mus musculus and its implications in the laboratory

From house mouse to mouse house: the behavioural biology of free-living Mus musculus and its implications in the laboratory

NPY‐Y1 coexpressed with NPY‐Y5 receptors modulate anxiety but not mild social stress response in mice

Variation in aggressive behavior and anatomo-physiological correlates generated by crowding without physical contact in the house mouse

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