Sociability versus empathy in adolescent mice: Different or distinctive?

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Animal Behavior
• Genetics

Background:

• Pre-clinical studies increasingly use mouse social abilities to investigate neurodevelopmental abnormalities linked to gene variants.
• Research on mouse social behavior is divided between quantifying sociability metrics and exploring underlying socio-emotional capacities like empathy.
• The relationship between objective measures of mouse sociability and their internal socio-emotional states remains poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare sociability in adolescent mice across different strains with a validated behavioral model of empathy using vicarious fear learning.
• To determine if measures of sociability align with underlying socio-emotional capacities in mice.
• To investigate the relationship between different social phenotypes and identify potential shared constructs.

Main Methods:

• Adolescent mice from multiple strains were assessed for sociability using quantitative metrics.
• A vicarious fear learning paradigm was employed to model empathy.
• Strain-specific differences in sociability and vicarious fear learning were analyzed for correlations.

Main Results:

• Significant strain-dependent variations were observed in both sociability and empathy measures.
• Little evidence supported a direct relationship between sociability and vicarious fear learning across strains.
• Emission of ultrasonic vocalizations showed a strong association with sociability, suggesting a shared underlying construct.

Conclusions:

• Sociability and vicarious fear learning in mice appear to be distinct social phenotypes, not driven by a single overarching social trait.
• Ultrasonic vocalizations may serve as a reliable indicator of sociability in mice.
• A diverse and comprehensive set of behavioral measures is crucial for accurately modeling the social aspects of neuropsychiatric disorders in mice.