Behavioral and neuroendocrine consequences of disrupting a long-term monogamous social bond in aging prairie voles.

Social support from a spouse, long-term partner, or someone who provides emotional or instrumental support may protect against consequences of aging, including mediating behavioral stress reactivity and altering neurobiological process that underlie short-term stress responses. Therefore, long-term social bonding may have behavioral and neurobiological benefits. The socially monogamous prairie vole provides a valuable experimental model for investigating the benefits of long-term social bonds on short-term stress reactivity in aging animals, given their unique social structure of forming enduring opposite-sex bonds, living in family groups, and bi-parental rearing strategies.

The Influence of Environmental Enrichment on Cardiovascular and Behavioral Responses to Social Stress.

Objective: Stress is linked to negative cardiovascular consequences and increases in depressive behaviors. Environmental enrichment (EE) involves exposure to novel items that provide physical and cognitive stimulation. EE has behavioral, cognitive, and neurobiological effects that may improve stress responses in humans and animal models.

Voluntary physical exercise protects against behavioral and endocrine reactivity to social and environmental stressors in the prairie vole.

Physical activity can combat detrimental effects of stress. The current study examined the potential protective effects of exercise against a combination of social isolation and chronic mild stress (CMS) in a prairie vole model. Female voles were isolated for 4 weeks, with the addition of CMS during the final 2 weeks.