ArticleStress (Amsterdam, Netherlands)2017
The protective effects of social bonding on behavioral and pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity to chronic mild stress in prairie voles.
Article in Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Voluntary exercise is a moderately effective mitigator of chronic social isolation stress in two female rodent models.Physiology & behavior · 2025Article
- Protective effects of exercise on responses to combined social and environmental stress in prairie voles.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Article
- Maladaptive cardiac and behavioral reactivity to repeated vicarious stress exposure in socially bonded male prairie vole siblings.Autonomic neuroscience : basic & clinical · 2024Article
- The effects of challenge or social buffering on cortisol, testosterone, and antler growth in captive red deer (Cervus elaphus) males.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Attachment across the lifespan: Examining the intersection of pair bonding neurobiology and healthy aging.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Microbiome and Metabolome Variation as Indicator of Social Stress in Female Prairie Voles.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Interactions between thePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Social isolation and oxytocin antagonism increase emotion-related behaviors and heart rate in female prairie voles.Autonomic neuroscience : basic & clinical · 2022Article
- Morphological changes in the basolateral amygdala and behavioral disruptions associated with social isolation.Behavioural brain research · 2022Article
- Neurobiology of Loneliness, Isolation, and Loss: Integrating Human and Animal Perspectives.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Review
- Behavioral trajectories of aging prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster): Adapting behavior to social context wanes with advanced age.PloS one · 2022Article
- Social Buffering as a Tool for Improving Rodent Welfare.Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2022Article
- Differential paraventricular nucleus activation and behavioral responses to social isolation in prairie voles following environmental enrichment with and without physical exercise.Social neuroscience · 2021Article
- Microglia react to partner loss in a sex- and brain site-specific manner in prairie voles.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2021Article
- The social network: Neural control of sex differences in reproductive behaviors, motivation, and response to social isolation.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2021Review
- Behavioral and neuroendocrine consequences of disrupting a long-term monogamous social bond in aging prairie voles.Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2021Article
- Oxytocin, Dopamine, and Opioid Interactions Underlying Pair Bonding: Highlighting a Potential Role for Microglia.Endocrinology · 2021Review
- Concordance in parent and offspring cortico-basal ganglia white matter connectivity varies by parental history of major depressive disorder and early parental care.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2020Article
- Physiological and behavioral responses to observing a sibling experience a direct stressor in prairie voles.Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2020Article
- Oxytocin receptor antagonist reverses the blunting effect of pair bonding on fear learning in monogamous prairie voles.Hormones and behavior · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Positive social interactions may protect against stress. This study investigated the beneficial effects of pairing with a social partner on behaviors and neuroendocrine function in response to chronic mild stress (CMS) in 13 prairie vole pairs. Following 5 days of social bonding, male and female prairie voles were exposed to 10 days of CMS (mild, unpredictable stressors of varying durations, for instance, strobe light, white noise, and damp bedding), housed with either the social partner (paired group) or individually (isolated group). Active and passive behavioral responses to the forced swim test (FST) and tail-suspension test (TST), and plasma concentrations of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone, were measured in all prairie voles following the CMS period. Both female and male prairie voles housed with a social partner displayed lower durations of passive behavioral responses (immobility, a maladaptive behavioral response) in the FST (mean ± SEM; females: 17.3 ± 5.4 s; males: 9.3 ± 4.6 s) and TST (females: 56.8 ± 16.4 s; males: 40.2 ± 11.3 s), versus both sexes housed individually (females, FST: 98.6 ± 12.9 s; females, TST: 155.1 ± 19.3 s; males, FST: 92.4 ± 14.1 s; males, TST: 158.9 ± 22.0 s). Female (but not male) prairie voles displayed attenuated plasma stress hormones when housed with a male partner (ACTH: 945 ± 24.7 pg/ml; corticosterone: 624 ± 139.5 ng/ml), versus females housed individually (ACTH: 1100 ± 23.2 pg/ml; corticosterone: 1064 ± 121.7 ng/ml). These results may inform understanding of the benefits of social interactions on stress resilience. Lay Summary: Social stress can lead to depression. The study of social bonding and stress using an animal model will inform understanding of the protective effects of social bonds. This study showed that social bonding in a rodent model can protect against behavioral responses to stress, and may also be protective against the elevation of stress hormones. This study provides evidence that bonding and social support are valuable for protecting against stress in humans.
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