Heinla Indrek, Heijkoop Roy, Houwing Danielle J, Olivier Jocelien D A, Snoeren Eelke M S
Department of Psychology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway.
Department of Psychology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway; Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Physiol Behav. 2020 Aug 1;222:112899. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.112899. Epub 2020 Apr 26.
SSRIs are commonly used to treat pregnant women with depression. However, SSRIs can cross the placenta and affect the development of the fetus. The effects of perinatal SSRI exposure, and especially the effects on social behavior, are still incompletely documented. This study first aims to investigate whether rats show prosocial behavior in the form of consolation behavior. Secondly, it aims to investigate whether perinatal SSRI exposure affects this prosocial behavior. At last, we investigate whether the behavior changed after the rats had been exposed to an additional white-noise stressor. Rat dams received 10 mg/kg/d fluoxetine (FLX) or vehicle (CTR) via oral gavage from gestational day 1 until postnatal day 21. At adulthood, the rat offspring were housed in four cohorts of 4 females and 4 males in a seminatural environment. As prosocial behaviors are more prominent after stressful situations, we investigated the behavioral response of rats immediately after natural aggressive encounters (fights). Additionally, we studied whether a stressful white-noise exposure would alter this response to the aggressive encounters. Our study indicates that CTR-female rats are able to show third party prosocial behavior in response to witnessing aggressive encounters between conspecifics in a seminatural environment. In addition, we showed that perinatal FLX exposure impairs the display of prosocial behavior in female rats. Moreover, we found no signs of prosocial behavior in CTR- and FLX-males after natural aggressive encounters. After white-noise exposure the effects in third party prosocial behavior of CTR-females ceased to exist. We conclude that female rats are able to show prosocial behavior, possibly in the form of consolation behavior. In addition, the negative effects of perinatal fluoxetine exposure on prosocial behavior could provide additional evidence that SSRI treatment during pregnancy could contribute to the risk for social impairments in the offspring.
选择性5-羟色胺再摄取抑制剂（SSRIs）常用于治疗患有抑郁症的孕妇。然而，SSRIs能够穿过胎盘并影响胎儿发育。围产期暴露于SSRIs的影响，尤其是对社会行为的影响，目前仍记录不完整。本研究的首要目的是调查大鼠是否会以安慰行为的形式表现出亲社会行为。其次，旨在调查围产期暴露于SSRIs是否会影响这种亲社会行为。最后，我们研究在大鼠暴露于额外的白噪声应激源后，其行为是否发生改变。从妊娠第1天到出生后第21天，对大鼠母鼠经口灌胃给予10毫克/千克/天的氟西汀（FLX）或赋形剂（CTR）。成年后，将大鼠后代以每组4只雌性和4只雄性的方式饲养在四个组中，置于半自然环境中。由于亲社会行为在应激情况后更为突出，我们在大鼠自然发生攻击性遭遇（打架）后立即调查其行为反应。此外，我们研究了应激性白噪声暴露是否会改变这种对攻击性遭遇的反应。我们的研究表明，CTR组雌性大鼠在半自然环境中目睹同种个体之间的攻击性遭遇时，能够表现出第三方亲社会行为。此外，我们发现围产期暴露于FLX会损害雌性大鼠亲社会行为的表现。而且，我们发现CTR组和FLX组雄性大鼠在自然攻击性遭遇后没有亲社会行为的迹象。在白噪声暴露后，CTR组雌性大鼠的第三方亲社会行为的影响不再存在。我们得出结论，雌性大鼠能够表现出亲社会行为，可能是以安慰行为的形式。此外，围产期氟西汀暴露对亲社会行为的负面影响可能提供额外证据，表明孕期使用SSRI治疗可能会增加后代出现社会功能障碍的风险。
