Hu Yun-Yun, Ding Xuan-Si, Yang Gang, Liang Xue-Song, Feng Lei, Sun Yan-Yun, Chen Rui, Ma Quan-Hong
Department of Neurology and Clinical Research Center of Neurological Disease, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuropsychiatric Diseases and Institute of Neuroscience, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2023 Jun 20;14:1186073. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1186073. eCollection 2023.
Social interaction is a fundamental human need. Social isolation (SI) can have negative effects on both emotional and cognitive function. However, it is currently unclear how age and the duration of SI affect emotion and recognition function. In addition, there is no specific treatment for the effects of SI.
The adolescence or adult mice were individually housed in cages for 1, 6 or 12 months and for 2 months to estabolish SI mouse model. We investigated the effects of SI on behavior in mice at different ages and under distinct durations of SI, and we explored the possible underlying mechanisms. Then we performed deep brain stimulation (DBS) to evaluate its influences on SI induced behavioral abnormalities.
We found that social recognition was affected in the short term, while social preference was damaged by extremely long periods of SI. In addition to affecting social memory, SI also affects emotion, short-term spatial ability and learning willingness in mice. Myelin was decreased significantly in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and dorsal hippocampus of socially isolated mice. Cellular activity in response to social stimulation in both areas was impaired by social isolation. By stimulating the mPFC using DBS, we found that DBS alleviated cellular activation disorders in the mPFC after long-term SI and improved social preference in mice.
Our results suggest that the therapeutic potential of stimulating the mPFC with DBS in individuals with social preference deficits caused by long-term social isolation, as well as the effects of DBS on the cellular activity and density of OPCs.
社交互动是人类的一项基本需求。社会隔离（SI）会对情绪和认知功能产生负面影响。然而，目前尚不清楚年龄和社会隔离的持续时间如何影响情绪和识别功能。此外，对于社会隔离的影响尚无特定的治疗方法。
将青春期或成年小鼠单独饲养在笼子里1、6或12个月，然后再饲养2个月以建立社会隔离小鼠模型。我们研究了社会隔离对不同年龄和不同社会隔离持续时间的小鼠行为的影响，并探索了可能的潜在机制。然后我们进行了深部脑刺激（DBS），以评估其对社会隔离诱导的行为异常的影响。
我们发现社会识别在短期内受到影响，而社会偏好则因极长时间的社会隔离而受损。除了影响社会记忆外，社会隔离还影响小鼠的情绪、短期空间能力和学习意愿。社会隔离小鼠的内侧前额叶皮质（mPFC）和背侧海马体中的髓磷脂显著减少。社会隔离损害了这两个区域对社会刺激的细胞活性。通过使用深部脑刺激刺激内侧前额叶皮质，我们发现深部脑刺激减轻了长期社会隔离后内侧前额叶皮质中的细胞激活障碍，并改善了小鼠的社会偏好。
我们的结果表明，对于因长期社会隔离导致社会偏好缺陷的个体，使用深部脑刺激刺激内侧前额叶皮质具有治疗潜力，以及深部脑刺激对少突胶质前体细胞的细胞活性和密度的影响。
