Assessment of social interaction and anxiety-like behavior in senescence-accelerated-prone and -resistant mice

- SAMP and SAMR1 mice were tested in social approach and object recognition tests.
- SAMP mice showed evidence of greater anxiety-like behavior than SAMR1 mice.
- Reduced sociability was seen in SAMP mice compared to SAMR1 mice.
- SAMP mice spent more time in protected areas and less in exposed areas than SAMR1 mice.

Two members of the senescence-accelerated mouse group, SAMP8 and SAMP10, are characterized by learning and memory deficits, while the SAMR1 strain is not. In this study, we used two behavioral tests, social approach and object recognition and compared the results observed for the SAMP strains with those seen in the control strain, SAMR1. In social approach experiments, the 2 SAMP strains showed decreased sociability compared to SAMR1 as shown by their reluctance to spend time near a stranger mouse and increased immobility. In object recognition experiments, SAMP strains spent more time in the thigmotaxis zone and less time in the more exposed central zone than SAMR1 mice. From a behavioral standpoint, SAMP mice were less interactive and showed increased anxiety-like behavior compared to SAMR1.