Behavioral effects of early-life social isolation on adult rats / 军事医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate rats reared in social isolation as a model of behavioral symptoms of neurodevelop-mental psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia.Methods Male rat pups were housed in individual cages from post-weaning to adulthood.Locomotor activity detection, Morris water maze test and social interaction test were performed. Results Compared with controls, the social isolation-reared rats got more body mass, showed locomotor hyperactivity and increased social interaction, but significant spatial learning changes were not observed in Morris water maze test.Conclu-sion Exposing rats to social isolation can profoundly affect behavior in adulthood, which can be used to build animal mod-els of neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia.