Abstract
Difficulty in forming normal social relationships is an important behavioral phenotype for characterizing psychiatric disorders and is often used as a diagnostic criterion. Mice, as well as human, grow by receiving maternal care from their mothers. Numerous studies have reported that maternal separation and social isolation during infancy or juvenile development alter socio‐emotional and cognitive behaviors in mice. By using a newly developed video‐analysis‐based system, we found that adolescent social isolation results in deficient social relationship formation in adulthood, and that the behavior of other mice influences the social‐emotional and social proximity of socially isolated mice. Mice can be an experimental model to elucidate the biological basis of development of social relationships and social behaviors. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.
