Social deficits in BTBR T + tf/J mice are unchanged by cross‐fostering with C57BL/6J mothers

Abstract

Inbred strains of mice are useful model systems for studying the interactions of genetic and environmental contributions during neurodevelopmental stages. We recently reported an inbred strain, BTBR T + tf/J (BTBR), which, as compared to the commonly used C57BL/6J (B6) strain, displays lower social interactions as juveniles, lower social approach in adult ages, and higher levels of repetitive self-grooming throughout developmental stages. The present study investigated whether the early postnatal maternal environment contributes substantially to the unusually low expression of social behaviors and high self-grooming in BTBR as compared to B6. Within 24 hours of birth, entire litters of pups were cross-fostered to either a dam of the same strain or a dam of the opposite strain. Control litters were left with their own mothers. Offspring were tested for juvenile play at postnatal day 21±1, for sociability at 8 weeks of age in an automated 3-chambered social approach test, and for self-grooming at 9-11 weeks of age. Results indicate that deficits in play behaviors in juvenile BTBR pups were not rescued by a B6 maternal environment. Similarly, a BTBR maternal environment did not induce play deficits in B6 pups. Cross-fostering had no effect on sociability scores in adults. The high self-grooming in BTBR and low self-grooming in B6 were not affected by maternal environment. These findings favor a genetic interpretation of the unusual social behaviors and self-grooming traits of BTBR, and support the use of the BTBR inbred strain as a mouse model to study genetic mechanism of autism.

Minimal aberrant behavioral phenotypes of neuroligin‐3 R451C knockin mice

“…Tabuchi et al Figure 5C employed the three-chambered social approach task which we originally developed and validated (Moy et al, 2004;Nadler et al, 2004;Yang et al, 2007;McFarlane et al 2008). The habituation and test sessions were performed using methods consistent with the ones in this manuscript.…”

“…Juveniles were tested for reciprocal social play and open field exploratory locomotion. Adults were tested for social approach in an automated three-chambered sociability apparatus, elevated plus maze and light↔dark anxiety-related behaviors, general health and home cage measures including nesting, neurological reflexes, open field locomotion, rotarod coordination and balance, forepaw reaching for vision, acoustic startle threshold for hearing, prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle for sensorimotor gating, hot plate and tail flick for pain sensitivity, contextual and cued fear conditioned learning and memory, and Morris water maze spatial learning and memory acquisition and reversal, as previously described (Crawley and Goodwin, 1980;Bailey et al, 2007;Crawley, 2007;Crawley et al, 2007;Moy et al, 2007;Yang et al, 2007;McFarlane et al, 2008;Scattoni et al, 2008) and described in detail in the Supplementary Methods. Figure 2A-D documents no significant differences between male genotypes for A) follow (F 2,28 = 0.157, NS), B) nose-to-nose sniff (F 2,28 = 0.087, NS), C) push-crawl-touch (F 2,28 = 2.031, NS) or D) social groom (F 2,28 = 0.337, NS).…”

Mouse neurexin-1α deletion causes correlated electrophysiological and behavioral changes consistent with cognitive impairments

“…Self-grooming behavior was measured essentially as described (55,56). Mice were habituated for 10 min in red light in an empty cage without bedding.…”

Olfactory cues are sufficient to elicit social approach behaviors but not social transmission of food preference in C57BL/6J mice

“…We have generated an automated 3-chambered social approach task that provides the subject mouse with a choice between spending time with a novel mouse or spending time with a novel non-social object [16,17,[39][40][41][42]44,64,65]. This task has face validity to the tendency of autistic children to spend more time playing with an inanimate toy than engaged in social interactions with other children [35,38].…”

“…This task has face validity to the tendency of autistic children to spend more time playing with an inanimate toy than engaged in social interactions with other children [35,38]. Versions of this assay have been used to measure social behavior in rats [46] and pine voles [19], as well as mouse models of autism [29,34,39,41,42,55,64,65]. However, the specific sensory cues that attract the subject to spend time with the stranger in this task have not yet been determined.…”