[Abstract Title]. - Society for Neuroscience

administration of the mu-opioid selective antagonist CTAP in the NAcc (3 κg/side) at 12-hour
intervals during a 24-hour mating period. Control females receiving vehicle in the NAcc
displayed a significant partner preference (p = 0.01), while females receiving CTAP displayed no
preference. Furthermore, the antagonist treatment did not affect mating behavior during the
cohabitation. We are in the process of performing anatomical control experiments to confirm the
site-specificity of these effects. The data strongly implicate the endogenous opioid system in pair
bond formation in female prairie voles, and further suggest that mu-opioid receptors in the NAcc
may mediate these effects.
Disclosures: J.P. Burkett, None; L.L. Spiegel, None; L.J. Young, None.
Poster
297. Social Recognition and Partner Preference
Time: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Program#/Poster#: 297.5/TT23
Topic: F.03.c. Social behavior
Support: NIMH Z01-MH-002498-17
Title: Development and validation of a reliable social recognition/discrimination paradigm
Authors: *A. H. MACBETH, J. STEPP, H.-J. LEE, W. S. YOUNG 3RD;
NIMH, NIH, Bethesda, MD
Abstract: Social recognition, in which an animal identifies and recognizes another individual of
the same species, is critical for appropriate display of social behaviors. Unfortunately, tests for
social recognition vary in the literature, making reliable and replicable testing of social
recognition difficult. Therefore, we investigated various components of social recognition testing
to design a robust paradigm where male mice are capable of consistently discriminating between
familiar and novel female stimulus animals every time the task is administered.
We first determined that males could discriminate between familiar and novel females when
stimulus females are isolated in corrals, eliminating the need to extinguish mounting behavior
prior to social recognition testing. The social recognition task was then administered a total of six
times to two cohorts of C57Bl/6J males, manipulating housing conditions (group or singly
housed) and numbers of corrals present during each trial (1 or 2 corrals) with each test.
Ultimately, social recognition reliably occurred using group housed males and singly housed
stimulus females (to avoid odor transmission between females). Furthermore, we used one corral
during the first trial (containing one female), and two corrals during the second trial, 30 minutes
later (one corral containing first, familiar female; one corral containing novel female).