Play matters: the surprising relationship between juvenile playfulness and anxiety in later life

Richter, S. Helene; Kästner, Niklas; Kriwet, Marie; Kaiser, Sylvia; Sachser, Norbert

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.02.003

Cited by 25 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Late weaning murine offspring were shown to display neural and behavioral changes, which however are typically not assessed before mice approach adulthood [6,64]. It was also shown in mice that effects of early life experiences may become more visible in full adulthood in comparison to adolescence [65]. Furthermore, late weaning mice were shown to initially develop higher body weights, which disappeared and reversed over time [64].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-weaning infant-to-mother bonding in nutritionally independent female mice

2020

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Infant-parent attachment is highly selective and continues beyond essential care in primates, most prominently in humans, and the quality of this attachment crucially determines cognitive and emotional development of the infant. Altricial rodent species such as mice (Mus musculus) display mutual recognition and communal nursing in wild and laboratory environments, but parental bonding beyond the nursing period has not been reported. We presently demonstrated that socially and nutritionally independent mice still prefer to interact selectively with their mother dam. Furthermore, we observed gender differences in the mother-infant relationship, and showed disruption of this relationship in haploinsufficient Nbea +/mice, a putative autism model with neuroendocrine dysregulation. To our knowledge, this is the first observation of murine infant-to-mother bonding beyond the nursing period.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-weaning infant-to-mother bonding in nutritionally independent female mice

2020

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“…during full adulthood. A previous study in mice has shown that effects of early-life differences may become more visible in full adulthood than in adolescence [37]. Thus, when behavioural testing is conducted too early in life, differences in anxiety-like behaviour may not be detected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Measures taken to assess anxiety-like behaviour were relative time on open arms (time on open arms/ (time on open + time on closed arms)), relative number of open arm entries (open arm entries/ (open arm entries + closed arm entries)) and the distance travelled on the open arms. To assess exploratory locomotion the total path travelled on the maze was recorded (e.g., [37, 38]).…”

Section: Animals and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Measures taken to assess anxiety-like behaviour were time in the centre (defined as the area being located at least 20 cm distant from the walls), number of centre entries, and the distance travelled in the centre. Exploratory locomotion was assessed on the basis of the total distance travelled within the complete arena (e.g., [37, 38]).…”

Section: Animals and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Time to Wean? Impact of Weaning Age on Anxiety-Like Behaviour and Stability of Behavioural Traits in Full Adulthood

et al. 2016

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In mammals, weaning constitutes an important phase in the progression to adulthood. It comprises the termination of suckling and is characterized by several changes in the behaviour of both mother and offspring. Furthermore, numerous studies in rodents have shown that the time point of weaning shapes the behavioural profile of the young. Most of these studies, however, have focused on ‘early weaning’, while relatively little work has been done to study ‘late weaning’ effects. The aim of the present study was therefore to explore behavioural effects of ‘late weaning’, and furthermore to gain insights into modulating effects of weaning age on the consistency of behavioural expressions over time. In total, 25 male and 20 female C57BL/6J mice, weaned after three (W3) or four (W4) weeks of age, were subjected to a series of behavioural paradigms widely used to assess anxiety-like behaviour, exploratory locomotion, and nest building performance. Behavioural testing took place with the mice reaching an age of 20 weeks and was repeated eight weeks later to investigate the stability of behavioural expressions over time. At the group level, W4 mice behaved less anxious and more explorative than W3 animals in the Open Field and Novel Cage, while anxiety-like behaviour on the Elevated Plus Maze was modulated by a weaning-age-by-sex interaction. Furthermore, weaning age shaped the degree of behavioural stability over time in a sex-specific way. While W3 females and W4 males displayed a remarkable degree of behavioural stability over time, no such patterns were observed in W3 males and W4 females. Adding to the existing literature, we could thus confirm that effects of weaning age do indeed exist when prolonging this phase, and were furthermore able to provide first evidence for the impact of weaning age and sex on the consistency of behavioural expressions over time.

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“…Additionally, in many experimental setups analyzing play, behavior social deprivation and barren housing are used to increase the animal-experimenter bonding [31,35,36]. In mice, poor maternal care also may lead to increased play behavior in juveniles and increased anxiety related behavior later in life [37]. Thus, it becomes apparent that particular circumstances of the animal's life history and experimental conditions have to be taken into careful consideration when play behavior in rodents is analyzed.…”

Section: Play Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Affective State in Laboratory Rodents to Promote Animal Welfare—What Is the Progress in Applied Refinement Research?

Jirkof

Rudeck

Lewejohann

2019

Animals

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An animal’s capacity to suffer is a prerequisite for any animal welfare concern, and the minimization of suffering is a key aim of refinement research. In contrast to the traditional focus on avoiding or reducing negative welfare states, modern animal welfare concepts highlight the importance of promoting positive welfare states in laboratory animals. Reliable assessments of affective states, as well as the knowledge of how to elicit positive affective states, are central to this concept. Important achievements have been made to assess pain and other negative affective states in animals in the last decades, but it is only recently that the neurobiology of positive emotions in humans and animals has been gaining more interest. Thereby, the need for promotion of positive affective states for laboratory animals is gaining more acceptance, and methods allowing the assessment of affective states in animals have been increasingly introduced. In this overview article, we present common and emerging methods to assess affective states in laboratory rodents. We focus on the implementation of these methods into applied refinement research to identify achieved progress as well as the future potential of these tools to improve animal welfare in animal-based research.

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Play matters: the surprising relationship between juvenile playfulness and anxiety in later life

Cited by 25 publications

References 66 publications

Post-weaning infant-to-mother bonding in nutritionally independent female mice

Post-weaning infant-to-mother bonding in nutritionally independent female mice

A Time to Wean? Impact of Weaning Age on Anxiety-Like Behaviour and Stability of Behavioural Traits in Full Adulthood

Assessing Affective State in Laboratory Rodents to Promote Animal Welfare—What Is the Progress in Applied Refinement Research?

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