Singh Kaur, Jaskirat
(2025)
Investigating the effect of oxytocin and MDMA on social interaction and long-term memory in the rat test for social transmission of food preferences (STFP).
MRes thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Food preferences are conserved from the most primitive organisms to the most socially advanced animals, including humans. The continuous integration of olfactory cues, present in both food and various environmental and physiological contexts, enables the preference for a given food source and its avoidance. Interestingly, rats have the potential to acquire food preferences through olfactory communication between conspecifics, a behaviour referred to as social transmission of food preferences. This particular behavioural paradigm enables the investigation of the transmission of positive information, in contrast to the majority of studies, which employ negative or aversive stimuli such as pain to induce social learning in laboratory animals. Social transmission of food preferences occurs when a rat sniffs the breath of a conspecific (social interaction session) who has previously consumed a novel food emitting specific odourants and will then develop a preference for this never-encountered food (preference session). Different stages of social transmission of food preferences allow pharmacological interventions that are translational to deficits associated with various disorders. For instance, the present study allows the investigation of the effects of oxytocin and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine on social interaction (during social interaction session) behaviour, along with memory deficits (during preference session) by employing a 7-day interval between detection of food odours (acquired during social interaction session) and preferences session, which is translational to negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders in humans. Additionally, we also investigated the effect of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine on serotonin syndrome, typically experienced by rodents and humans, and latency to consume novel and familiar food post administration. The results did not reveal any significant effects of oxytocin on social interaction behaviour, while 3,4-ethylenedioxymethamphetamine increased certain prosocial behaviours, such as the following. Moreover, a significant impact of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine was observed on serotonin syndrome, including behaviours such as head weaving. Neither drug increased memory of food preferences involving a 1-week interval following social interaction, although rats did acquire food preference when the preference session immediately followed the social interaction session. Moreover, a lower dose of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine caused rats to consume demonstrated chow earlier than the novel chow, indicating an effect on latency to consume demonstrated food rather than the amount of demonstrated food consumed. The insignificant impact of oxytocin observed during an experiment could be attributed to oxytocin degrading in the interval between purchase and administration or in transit to our off-campus in vivo research facility on the day of administration. The experiment also highlighted that the social interaction phase is essential to acquire food preferences from a conspecific, as transmission did not occur when the observers were only allowed to sniff a flavoured diet from a food bowl without any premature consumption, rather than a pre-fed social partner.
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