Atypical Social Development in Vasopressin-Deficient Brattleboro Rats

Over the past 3 decades, a large body of evidence has accumulated demonstrating that the neuropeptide arginine vasopressin (AVP) plays a critical role in regulating social behavior. The overwhelming majority of this evidence comes from adults, leaving a gap in our understanding of the role of AVP during development. Here, we investigated the effect of chronic AVP deficiency on a suite of juvenile social behaviors using Brattleboro rats, which lack AVP due to a mutation in the Avp gene. Social play behavior, huddling, social investigation & allogrooming, and ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) of male and female rats homozygous for the Brattleboro mutation (Hom) were compared with their wild-type (WT) and heterozygous (Het) littermates during same-sex, same-genotype social interactions. Male and female Hom juveniles exhibited less social play than their Het and WT littermates throughout the rise, peak, and decline of the developmental profile of play. Hom juveniles also emitted fewer prosocial 50 kHz USVs, and spectrotemporal characteristics (call frequency and call duration) of individual call types differed from those of WT and Het juveniles. However, huddling behavior was increased in Hom juveniles, and social investigation and 22 kHz USVs did not differ across genotypes, demonstrating that not all social interactions were affected in the same manner. Collectively, these data suggest that the Avp gene plays a critical role in juvenile social development.