Evaluation of Social Odor Preference and Social Communication with the Same- and Opposite-Sex Conspecifics in Male Mice

This report describes a three-step protocol to evaluate socialpreference toward conspecifics of either sex in male mice suitablefor screening social communication deficits. Social communicationsare among the predominant activities in many animal species andare essential for their survival and reproduction. Some of the keysocial interactions occur with the same-sex and opposite-sex conspecifics andinclude approach, exploration, allogrooming, courtship, mating,and aggression. Laboratory mouse models are well suited to examinesocial interactions. Notably, mouse social behavior is primarilydriven by the odor cues as the olfactory system serves the primarysensory modality in rodents. Thus, odor perception and processingdefine social communication with males and females. To comprehensivelyyet efficiently screen social communication with conspecifics ofeither sex, a three-step protocol was developed, including the odorpreference, the social odor preference and the Two-intruders test.The odor preference test evaluates a test animal’s ability to discriminateodors per se and involves food odor. The social odor preferencetest uses male’s and female’s bedding to evaluate preference towardsocial odor. The Two-intruders test involves simultaneous interactionwith a male and a female in a home cage in order to evaluate directsocial interaction with the same-sex and opposite-sex conspecifics.The suggested behavioral pipeline evaluates the role of the mainand accessory olfactory systems (AOS and MOS) in a particular phenotypefound in a mouse model or condition under study.