Mice Recognise Mice in Neighbouring Rearing Cages and Change Their Social Behaviour.
Behav Neurol
; 2024: 9215607, 2024.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38264671
ABSTRACT
Mice are social animals that change their behaviour primarily in response to visual, olfactory, and auditory information from conspecifics. Rearing conditions such as cage size and colour are important factors influencing mouse behaviour. In recent years, transparent plastic cages have become standard breeding cages. The advantage of using a transparent cage is that the experimenter can observe the mouse from outside the cage without touching the cage. However, mice may recognise the environment outside the cage and change their behaviour. We speculated that mice housed in transparent cages might recognise mice in neighbouring cages. We used only male mice in this experiment. C57BL/6 mice were kept in transparent rearing cages with open lids, and the cage positions were maintained for 3 weeks. Subsequently, we examined how mice behaved toward cagemate mice, mice from neighbouring cages, and mice from distant cages. We compared the level of interest in mice using a social preference test. Similar to previous reports, subject mice showed a high degree of interest in unfamiliar mice from distant cages. By contrast, subject mice reacted to mice from neighbouring cages as familiar mice, similar to cagemate mice. This suggests that mice housed in transparent cages with open lids perceive the external environment and identify mice in neighbouring cages. Researchers should pay attention to the environment outside the mouse cage, especially for the social preference test.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Social Behavior
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Aspects:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Behav Neurol
/
Behav. neurol
/
Behavioural neurology
Journal subject:
CIENCIAS DO COMPORTAMENTO
/
NEUROLOGIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Country of publication: