Effect of pre- versus post-weaning environmental disturbances on social behaviour in mice

Environmental factors are involved to various degrees in psychiatric diseases. Unfortunately, early-life manipulations have been rarely investigated in mice. Interestingly, given the advances in genetics, combination of environmental and genetic factors to get construct validity is now possible. Herein, spontaneous activity, anxiety-like behaviour, social behaviour and short term spatial working memory were assessed in mice after maternal separation or social isolation. Of note, social withdrawal was observed in both models suggesting that this aspect needs to be better considered in future studies, particularly in testing new treatments for schizophrenia.