Early-life sleep disruption impairs subtle social behaviours in prairie voles: a pose-estimation study.

ABSTRACT: Early-life sleep disruption (ELSD) has been shown to have long-lasting effects on social behaviour in adult prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), including impaired expression of pair bonding during partner preference testing. However, due to the limitations of manual behaviour tracking, the effects of ELSD across the time course of pair bonding have not yet been described, hindering our ability to trace mechanisms. Here, we used pose estimation to track prairie voles during opposite-sex cohabitation, the process leading to pair bonding. Male-female pairs were allowed to interact through a mesh divider in the home cage for 72 h, providing variables of body direction, distance-to-divider and locomotion speed. We found that control males displayed periodic patterns of body orientation

SUBMITTER: Bueno-Junior LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10336370 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature