Cardiac and behavioral effects of social isolation and experimental manipulation of autonomic balance

Improved understanding of how depression and social isolation interact to increase cardiac morbidity and mortality will improve public health. This experiment evaluated the effect of pharmacological autonomic blockade on cardiac and behavioral reactivity following social isolation in prairie voles. Experiment 1 validated the dose and time course of pharmacological autonomic antagonism of peripheral β-adrenergic (atenolol) and muscarinic cholinergic receptors (atropine methyl nitrate), and Experiment 2 used a novel protocol to investigate behavioral responses in the tail suspension test during pharmacological autonomic blockade as a function of social isolation (vs. paired control). Prairie voles isolated for 4 weeks (vs. paired) displayed significantly elevated heart rate and reduced heart rate variability. Autonomic receptor antagonism by atenolol led to exaggerated reductions in heart rate and standard deviation of normal-to-normal intervals, and lower amplitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia in the isolated group (vs. paired). Administration of atropine led to an attenuated increase in heart rate in the isolated group (vs. paired), and similar near-zero levels of respiratory sinus arrhythmia amplitude in both groups. During the tail suspension test, isolated animals (vs. paired) displayed significantly greater immobility. In paired animals, atenolol administration did not influence immobility; atropine administration increased the duration of immobility (vs. vehicle). In isolated animals, atenolol administration increased the duration of immobility; atropine did not influence immobility duration (vs. vehicle). The current study contributes to our understanding of differential effects of social isolation and autonomic imbalance on cardiac and behavioral reactivity.