Social recognition

Dantzer R. (1998). Vasopressin, gonadal steroids and social recognition. Prog Brain Res 119, 409-441. 

ABT-239 (5), a potent H3R antagonist, was effective at low doses (0.1 mg/kg s.c.) in a repeat trial inhibitory avoidance task in SHR pups [26], a model involving aspects of attention, impulsivity and learning that is thought to be relevant to characteristics of ADHD. ABT-239 was active in a social recognition... 

Spehr, M., Kelliher, K., Li, X.-H., Boehm, T., Leinders-Zufall, T. and Zufall, F. (2006) Essential role of the main olfactory system in social recognition of major histocompatibility complex peptide ligands. J. Neurosci 26, 1961-1970. 

Olfaction is of primary importance for social recognition in mammals, including mice. Thus mice use odors to distinguish sex, social or reproductive status of conspecifics (Brennan and Zufall 2006 Brown 1979). In addition, odors have been shown to facilitate the display of sexual behavior (e.g. Thompson and Edwards 1972) and to induce neuroendocrine responses (e.g. pregnancy block in female mice Brennan and Keverne 1997). 

Mateo, J.M. (2004) Recognition systems and biological organization the perception component of social recognition. Ann. Zool. Fenn. 41, 729-745. 

In an attempt to establish the neural bases of social recognition, isolated neurons from the vomeronasal organ of female and male L. bellii, were studied during the potential breeding season. The physiological properties of these cells were determined, as well as their ability to respond to different types of chemosignals from... 

Dantzer, R., and Bluthe, R.-M. 1992. Vasopressin involvement in antipyresis, social communication, and social recognition A synthesis. Critical Reviews in Neurobiology 16 243—255. 

Bhattacharya SK, Bhattacharya AR, Chakrabarti AMIT (1998) Anxiogenic activity of intra-ventricularly administered arginine-vasopressin in the rat. Biogenic Amines 14 367-385 Bielsky IP, Young LJ (2004) Oxytocin, vasopressin, and social recognition in mammals. Peptides 25 1565-1574... 

Engelmann M, Ludwig M, Landgraf R (1994) Simultaneous monitoring of intracerebral release and behavior vasopressin improves social recognition. J Neuroendocrinol 6 391-395... 

In different species, the OT has been found to influence a wide range of social behaviors, including maternal and paternal behavior, sexual, aggressive and affiliative behaviors, olfactory investigation, and social recognition memory. These relationships are complex, with OT effects, dose-response relationships, and directionality differing across species. In a number of studies, OT infusion has had contrasting effects on the social behaviors of various species (Winslow et ah. 

Arginine-vasopressin, a nine amino acid peptide, facilitates the formation of social recognition and social memory in rats, and AVP antagonists block such facilitation (Winslow et ah, 1993). It has been suggested... 

Prado, V. F., Martins-Silva, C., de Castro, B. M., lima, R. F., Barros, D. M., Amaral, E., et al. (2006) Mice deficient for the vesicular acetylcholine transporter are myasthenic and have deficits in object and social recognition. Neuron 51, 601-612. 

Because social cognition in humans appears more complex than simple recognition alone, a rodent social recognition task might not adequately model this condition in humans. Instead, the richer repertoire of social behaviors in NHP (e.g., ref. 115) might lend itself better to address drug effects on social cognition. 

Social recognition refers to the fact that an adult rat, when exposed to the same juvenile rat on two occasions, demonstrates that it has recognized the juvenile by a decrease in the amount of investigatory behavior on the second occasion. Absence of a decrease in investigatory behavior at the second occasion suggests that the adult rat has forgotten the juvenile. 

Caution has to be applied with such anthropomorphic interpretations however. Whereas the basis of human social recognition is mainly visual, the major component in rodent social recognition paradigms is more likely to be olfactory (Sawyer et al. 1984). Thus drugs which affect rodent social recognition may do so by mechanisms not pertinent to social recognition in man, for example by changing olfactory cues. Whatever the mechanism, it is clear that animals... 

Fig. 12. Effects of scopolamine on social recognition memory in the rat. Note the clear decrease in social investigation in the vehicle control group between the first and the second exposure 30 minutes later (social memory) and the absence of effect of scopolamine on social investigation during the first exposure (absence of intrinsic effects of scopolamine on social investigation). In the scopolamine-treated animals there is no decrease in social investigation at the second exposure, demonstrating impairment of social memory.

Moreover, to ensure that the drug effects observed are not due to intrinsic effects of the test substance on social exploration, it is desirable to precede the main social recognition experiment by a prior dose-response experiment to ensure that the selected doses do not affect baseline social investigation. 

Another variant to social recognition, is an object recognition task (Castagne et al. 2004), where exposure to a juvenile rat is replaced by exposure to familiar or unfamiliar inanimate objects. Object recognition tests are less subject to olfactory cues and baseline values can be more stable as the objects can be placed in fixed positions at the start of a session, but also lose part of their initial face validity. 

Animal models have shown that oxytocin plays a role in social recognition (Popik et al., 1992) and that oxytocin antagonists disrupt social memory (Engelmann et al.,... 

Popik P, Vetulani J, van Ree JM (1992) Low doses of oxytocin faciUtate social recognition in rats. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 106 71—74... 

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