Indispensable role of the oxytocin receptor for allogrooming toward socially distressed cage mates in female mice.

ABSTRACT: Social contact reduces stress responses in social animals. Mice have been shown to show allogrooming behaviour toward distressed conspecifics. However, the precise neuronal mechanisms underlying allogrooming behaviour remain unclear. In the present study, we examined whether mice show allogrooming behaviour towards distressed conspecifics in a social defeat model and we also determined whether oxytocin receptor-expressing neurons were activated during allogrooming by examining the expression of c-Fos protein, a marker of neurone activation. Mice showed allogrooming behaviour toward socially defeated conspecifics. After allogrooming behaviour, the percentages of oxytocin receptor-expressing neurones expressing c-Fos protein were significantly increased in the anterior olfactory nucleus, cin

SUBMITTER: Matsumoto M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8243938 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature