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

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.Running Head: SOCIAL VS. FOOD 3 HIGHLIGHTS  Rats prefer social over food when sated, and this is attenuated by food deprivation.  Mice have no preference when sated, and prefer food over social when food-deprived.  Rats prefer a familiar social stimulus or a novel social stimulus over food.  Mice prefer food over a familiar social stimulus.  Adolescent rats investigate social and food stimuli longer than adult rats. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACTRunning Head: SOCIAL VS. FOOD

The rough-and-tumble play of rats as a natural behavior suitable for studying the social brain

“…In addition, how cortical and subcortical neural circuits that are known to be involved in regulating affective and aversive USV (Brudzynski, 2013) are modulated to accommodate different styles of play remains to be determined. However, attempts to explain the neural mechanisms associated with individual differences in RTP have started to emerge in the literature (e.g., Reppucci et al, 2020).…”

The Social versus Food Preference Test: A behavioral paradigm for studying competing motivated behaviors in rodents

“…The Social versus Food Preference Test was validated by examining how acute food deprivation would alter stimulus preference, under the assumption that food deprivation would increase motivation for food and thus bias preference more towards the food stimulus [1,6,7]. Experimental subjects were individually housed adult (13-14 week old) Wistar rats (n = 7 males, n = 5 females) and C57BL/6J mice (n = 8 males, n = 6 females) [2]. Experimental subjects were rst habituated to the testing apparatus as described above, and then tested in the Social versus Food Preference Test on two occasions each 48 hrs apart using a within-subjects counterbalanced design (sated x food-deprived).…”

“…The Social versus Food Preference Test was developed to assess the preference of rats and mice to investigate a social stimulus versus a food stimulus, and was based on a two-chamber social interaction assay used to determine the effects of hunger signals on social interest in mice [1]. In our adaptation of this paradigm, we examined social versus food preference using a three-chamber apparatus where the social stimulus and the food stimulus were placed on opposite ends (Fig 1) [2]. This con guration allows for a neutral middle chamber zone instead of a forced choice that two-chamber con gurations elicit, and its use was based on our previous experiences with social novelty preference [3] and opposite sex preference [4] tests in rats, and well-characterized sociability and social novelty preference tests in mice [5].…”