Stress negatively affects our quality of life. In particular, some individuals experience social stress when placed in a social environment that they are unfamiliar with or have difficulty adjusting to. Since it is hard to examine mechanisms of social stress in humans, modeling this condition in animals may help scientist in developing new therapies for treating this commonly encountered problem.

This science education video begins by discussing the known anatomy and physiology behind stress response. Then, we explain a well-established paradigm for modeling social stress in rodents, the Resident-Intruder task. In the applications section, we review some example studies in which response to stress is measured.