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Behavioral and adrenocortical reactivity in female mice following individual or group housing
Author(s) -
Benton D.,
Brain P. F.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420140203
Subject(s) - corticosterone , open field , ether anesthesia , basal (medicine) , endocrinology , medicine , psychology , environmental enrichment , titer , reactivity (psychology) , physiology , immunology , hormone , antibody , pathology , alternative medicine , insulin
Female “TO” strain mice were individually or group‐housed for different durations (7–196 days). Behavioral reactivity was assessed for 3 days in an open field and an emergence test. Plasma samples were later collected after 5 min exposure to ethyl ether vapor; these generated “stress” corticosterone values. “Basal” corticosterone titers were obtained from similar untested and unanesthetized categories of mice. “Ether‐stress” values were obtained from a limited number of mice subjected to ether anesthesia but no behavioral testing. Neither the basal nor the stress adrenocortical activities of the 2 housing categories differed. Open‐field ambulation increased with longer durations of isolation, whereas for grouped mice it remained approximately constant. Individually housed mice had significantly lower defecation scores and longer emergence times than group‐housed mice. In sum, little support was provided for the view that isolation is stressful.