Social transfer of alcohol withdrawal-induced hyperalgesia in female prairie voles

Abstract

The expression of pain serves as a way for animals to communicate potential dangers to nearby conspecifics. Recent research demonstrated that mice undergoing alcohol or morphine withdrawal, or inflammation, could socially communicate their hyperalgesia to nearby mice. However, it is unknown whether such social transfer of hyperalgesia can be observed in other species of rodents. Therefore, the present study investigated if the social transfer of hyperalgesia occurs in the highly social prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster). We observe that adult female prairie voles undergoing withdrawal from voluntary two-bottle choice alcohol drinking display an increase in nociception. This alcohol withdrawal-induced hypersensitiity is socially transferred to female siblings within the same cage and female strangers housed in separate cages within the same room. These experiments reveal that the social transfer of pain phenomenon is not specific to inbred mouse strains and that prairie voles display alcohol withdrawal and social transfer-induced hyperalgesia.

Alcohol and Pain: A Translational Review of Preclinical and Clinical Findings to Inform Future Treatment Strategies

“…This phenomenon was further strengthened by alcohol (1.5 g/kg), although the noncontingent nature of alcohol administration may limit the applicability of findings. These data complement a series of investigations in drinking animals, suggesting that alcohol withdrawal–induced hyperalgesia may also be transmitted to conspecifics (Smith et al, ; Walcott et al, ). Indeed, the social transfer of hyperalgesia may represent an adaptive biobehavioral process to facilitate the communication of dangers within a group of animals.…”

Insights from social transmission of information in rodents

“…A good example of this latter effect is socially induced increases in pain sensitivity ( hyperalgesia ), which may be induced through chronic exposure to conspecifics in pain. Naïve mice and prairie voles that are simply housed in the same room as conspecifics receiving painful inflammatory injections or undergoing withdrawal symptoms display enhanced sensitivity to chemically, thermally and mechanically induced pain. In mice, the induction of hyperalgesia in this case occurs at least partially via olfactory cues, as naïve mice exposed only to the bedding of conspecifics that were undergoing bouts of painful alcohol withdrawal displayed similar increases in their pain sensitivity .…”

Assessing effects of oxytocin on alcohol consumption in socially housed prairie voles using radio frequency tracking

“…Recognizing this caveat, researchers attempted several approaches to take social influences on drug taking into account. Most common of these approaches to date were as follows: (a) housing animals socially and calculating the total intake for an entire cage 6,7 ; (b) housing animals socially, but testing drug intake in a probe trial in isolated condition 8,9 ; (c) housing animals in semisocial conditions by separating them within a cage by a mesh divider 10‐12 ; and (d) housing animals socially, measuring total cage intake and dividing it by the time each individual animal spends near a drinking spout or touches the spout through video tracking or lickometer approaches 13,14 . The latter approaches were a step forward in assessing social aspects of substance abuse, but either did not provide high resolution needed to measure individual substance consumption in social settings or introduced additional factors capable of affecting drug intake (for example, stress of mesh separation).…”