The effects of social loss and isolation on partner odor investigation and dopamine and oxytocin receptor expression in female prairie voles.

In humans, grief is characterized by intense sadness, intrusive thoughts of the deceased, and intense longing for reunion with the deceased. Human fMRI studies show hyperactivity in emotional pain and motivational centers of the brain when an individual is reminded of a deceased attachment figure, but the molecular underpinnings of these changes in activity are unknown. Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), which establish lifelong social bonds between breeding pairs, also display distress and motivational shifts during periods of prolonged social loss, providing a model to investigate these behavioral and molecular changes at a mechanistic level. Here, a novel odor preference test was used to assess social vs non-social odor investigation, and a sucrose preference test was used to assess non-social, reward-driven motivation. Females that lost a male partner investigated partner- and food-associated cues significantly more than females that lost a female cagemate or remained intact with a male partner. However, females experiencing the loss of a male partner did not change investigation of stranger-associated cues. Western blotting revealed significant increases of dopamine receptor type 1 (DRD1) and oxytocin receptor protein content in specific brain regions in response to the loss of distinct social relationships. Such effects included an increase in DRD1 in the medial preoptic area of the hypothalamus (mPOA) in females experiencing loss of a male partner compared to all other conditions. Pharmacological antagonism of DRD1 in the mPOA blocked the loss-associated increase of investigation of the partner odor but did not affect investigation of food or stranger odors. This reveals a novel dopamine-mediated mechanism for partner-seeking behavior during periods of partner loss in female prairie voles.