The authors wish to acknowledge the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) for their generous support to publish this manuscript as an open access paper.

1.	The Experimental Setup
<ol>
 <li>Use for each resident a cage with a floor space of about half a square meter. Offensive aggression is a highly active form of behavior that requires sufficient space for its full expression. The cage should be made of sanitizable material. </li>
 <li>House each resident with a female for at least one week before the start of the experiments, which will facilitate the development of territoriality. At the same time this will prevent social isolation, which is known to be stressful for social animals and may lead to reduced welfare and aberrant forms of social behavior. </li>
 <li>Use companion females that are sterilized by ligation of the oviducts. In this way, the female stays hormonally intact and will be regularly receptive without becoming pregnant and developing maternal aggression. </li>
</ol>
2.	Procedure
<ol>
 <li>House the resident male and the companion female together in the resident cage for at least one week prior to testing. </li>
 <li>Do not clean the bedding of the cage during that initial week or prior to later testing, since territoriality is strongly based on the presence of olfactory cues. These cues are both important for the resident in establishing its own territory and for the intruder to know that it is in the home cage of the resident. Please, notice that this deviation from the general animal care taking procedures may require special permission from the authorities. </li>
 <li>Remove the companion female from the residential cage one hour before the test. </li>
 <li>Introduce an unfamiliar male into the home cage of the resident at the start of the test. Preferably, the intruder should be slightly smaller than the resident and should not have been used in previous interactions with the same resident. </li>
 <li>Record the behavior of the resident, preferably using a light sensitive video camera. </li>
 <li>A test duration of 10 min is usually sufficient for the expression of the full offensive behavioral repertoire. For the purpose of standardization one may consider to continue recording for ten minutes after the first attack. </li>
 <li>After completion of the test, remove the intruder male from the cage and reunite the resident male with its companion female. </li>
 <li>Although aggression may occur at all times of day, it is best to test only during the dark phase; the rats' main activity phase. </li>
 <li>Testing can be performed once or twice per day. The level of aggressive behavior often increases across the first couple of tests but generally stabilizes after three to four tests. </li>
</ol>
3.	Offensive Aggressive Behavior
<ol>
 <li>In principle, any strain of rats can be used as residents. However, strains may differ considerably for their absolute level of aggressive behavior. Moreover, there may be a considerable individual variation within strains. </li>
 <li>Standardize intruders as much as possible in terms of strain, age and weight. Use rats of a non-aggressive strain that are slightly lower in body weight than the resident male. </li>
 <li>Determine in the resident male the duration and frequency of the following behavioral parameters: 
 <ol class="lroman">
 <li>Attack latency: the time between the introduction of the intruder and the first clinch attack</li>
 <li>Move towards</li>
 <li>Social exploration </li>
 <li>Ano-genital sniffing </li>
 <li>Rearing </li>
 <li>Lateral threat </li>
 <li>Upright posture </li>
 <li>Clinch attack </li>
 <li>Keep down </li>
 <li>Chase </li>
 <li>Non-social explore </li>
 <li>Rest or inactivity </li>
 </ol>
 </li>
 <li>Analyses 
 <ol class="lroman">
 <li>The behavioral parameters recorded should cover 100% of the observation time. This facilitates an unbiased interpretation of the results, i.e. when one behavior goes up, another has to go down. </li>
 <li>Data reduction can be obtained by calculating scores of different behavioral categories; particularly:
 <ol>
 <li>Total offense score: sum of lateral threat, upright, clinch, keep down and chase</li>
 <li> 	Social exploration score: sum of social explore, ano-genital sniffing and social groom </li>
 </ol>
 </li>
 <li>Data can be expressed as percentages of the total observation time </li>
 </ol>
 </li>
</ol>
4.	Violence
<ol>
 <li>Follow the protocol explained under section 2 </li>
 <li>Behavioral tests and criteria: 
 <ol class="lroman">
 <li>Determine in the resident male the attack latency. A very short latency is a first indicator of violence.</li>
 <li>Calculate for the resident male the ratio between the frequencies of lateral threat and clinch. A ratio below 1 shows that animals attack without any introductory behavior and forewarning which is a reliable indicator of violence (out of control). </li>
 <li>Bite target sites: 
 <ol>
 <li>Bites attacks targeted at vulnerable body parts such as the throat, belly and paws are a sign of violence. </li>
 <li>Bites targeted at the snout of the opponent indicate defensive behavior of the actor.</li>
 </ol>
 </li>
 <li>Out of context tests: 
 <ol>
 <li>Use an unfamiliar female as intruder. Attack of a female is a sign of violence.</li>
 <li>Use an anesthetized male as intruder. Attack of an anesthetized male is a sign of violence.</li>
 <li>Test the aggressive behavior of the resident in a novel environment. The absence of a change in aggression compared to the home cage is a sign of violence.
 The endpoint of this test is the first attack or ten minutes when the resident does not attack. </li>
 </ol>
 </li>
 </ol>
 </li>
 </ol>
5.	Defensive Behavior 
<ol>
 <li>Select a number of well trained, highly aggressive, non-violent resident males </li>
 <li>Follow the protocol as explained under section 2 </li>
 <li>Determine in the intruder the duration and frequency of the following behavioral parameters (in addition to 3c): 
 <ol class="lroman">
 <li>Submission latency </li>
 <li>Submissive posture </li>
 <li>Move away </li>
 <li>Flight </li>
 <li>Defensive upright posture</li>
 <li>Freeze </li>
 <li>Non-social explore </li>
 <li>Rearing </li>
 </ol>
 </li>
 <li>Analysis 
 <ol class="lroman">
 <li>Data reduction can be obtained by calculating a defense score, which is the sum of the amount of time spent on flight, defensive upright posture, submission and freeze </li>
 </ol>
 </li>
</ol>
6.	Social Stress
<ol>
 <li>Follow the protocol as explained under section 5</li>
 <li>For intermittent social stress, repeat the protocol </li>
 <li>For chronic social stress, keep the intruder in the resident's cage, but separated from the resident by a wire mesh screen
 </li>
 <li>Continue step b and/or c for as long as the scientific questions and hypotheses require.</li>
</ol>

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The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

The resident-intruder paradigm can be used to study offensive aggression, defensive behavior, violence and social stress in rats and, with some small modifications for other rodent species as well. When studying aggression, principally all rat strains can be used. However, strains are not equally suitable. Depending on the exact purpose of the experiment, some specific characteristics of the animals should be considered. It is important to notice that there are large strain differences in the level and intensity of offensive aggression shown as a resident. Figure 1 shows the frequency distribution of offensive aggression in an originally feral rat strain (Figure 1a) and in a standard laboratory Wistar strain (Figure 1b). The two strains differ considerably in the number of animals that will show aggressive behavior at all. Moreover, there is a large difference in the absolute scale of offense. The feral rat strain ranges from zero up to 80% offense in our standard 10 min test whereas the Wistar strain has a maximum of 25% offense; the highly aggressive phenotype is absent in this latter strain 16. 
When the resident-intruder paradigm is used to study defensive behavior and social stress in the intruder, one needs these highly aggressive phenotypes as residents. After all, the resident has to reliably defeat any intruder entering his territory. Of course, the most aggressive individuals should be chosen and one should realize that even in a highly aggressive strain, not all individuals will be suitable for this purpose. True adult males of at least four months of age 10 should be used and one may consider using former breeder males. It is recommended to give the resident males some further experience with intruders during the days before the actual start of the social stress experiment. Any strain can be used as intruder. However, to guarantee clear winning by the resident and defeat of the intruder, we advise to use intruders with a slightly lower body weight than the resident male. Because olfactory cues are important in social communication and territoriality, cleaning the cage of the resident prior to testing will be a serious confounder.
	It is recommended to videotape and record the full behavioral repertoire of the experimental animal during the test. This allows an unbiased analysis of the results, i.e. when one behavior goes up, another is likely to go down. For example, the results depicted in Figure 3 shows that a reduction in offense following drug treatment is accompanied by an increase in social exploration and not by immobility. This provides evidence that the drug induced reduction in offense is not due to some kind of a sedative or motor inactivity effect. The total offense score is an index of the intensity of aggression and the latency of the first attack and number of attacking animals can be used as a measure of the readiness to attack 22.
	For social stress experiments one should have a clear criterion for social defeat. When the intruder adopts a submissive posture (see above) and stays in this posture even when the resident moves away, this is a reliable criterion for social defeat. Notice that housing conditions of the intruders are extremely important in social stress research. First, the social stress should not be administered in the same room where the non-stressed controls are housed. Control animals witnessing (social) stress in other individuals may experience major stress themselves 7, 21. Second, the consequences of social stress are sensitive to social buffering effects. Group housed, socially stressed animals do not show the same long-term consequences seen in socially stressed animals that are socially isolated afterwards 23.
	Taken together, the resident intruder paradigm allows research on both the causes and the consequences of aggressive behavior. It is a model with a high face and construct validity that covers not only the adaptive biology of social behavior, but can be used to study maladaptive aspects as well in terms of violence and social stress pathology.

Aggressive behavior belongs to the natural behavioral repertoire of virtually all animal species. From a biological point of view, aggressive behavior can be considered as a highly functional form of social communication aimed at active control of the social environment. It is characterized by a set of species-typical behaviors performed in close interaction with the opponent. Overt aggression and physical conflicts are potentially harmful not only for the victim but for the aggressor as well. Therefore, throughout the animal kingdom, mechanisms have been developed to minimize and control physical aggression in order to prevent its potentially adverse consequences. Such mechanisms include, for example, threatening behavior that often predicts and may thereby prevent physical attacks. Other mechanisms to keep aggression in control are taboos, ritualization, submission, reconciliation and appeasement. This holds in particular for offensive aggression, which is a form of aggressive behavior characterized by initiative of the offender and a range of introductory, often threatening, behavioral displays before attempting to reach the back and neck as non-vulnerable targets for the consummatory aggressive attack bites. Despite such highly adaptive control mechanism, examples exist of functional aggression turning into violence, which can thus be defined as an injurious form of offensive aggression that is out of control and out of context; it is a pathological form of offensive behavior that is no longer subject to inhibitory control mechanisms and that has no additive functional value to normal aggressive behavior in social communication 8. Violence thus differs both quantitatively and qualitatively from normal adaptive offensiveness. This may include bites attacks targeted at vulnerable body parts such as the throat, belly and paws are normally off limits 5, 13, 20, 24.
Defensive aggression is the form of aggressive behavior performed in response to an attack by another individual. It is distinctly different from offense in terms of its behavioral expression and inhibitory controls 5. Note that extreme forms of defensive behavior can have violent characteristics.
Much of the preclinical aggression research is conducted in territorial male resident rats or mice confronting an intruder conspecific. This so-called resident-intruder paradigm allows the spontaneous and natural expression of both offensive aggression and defensive behavior in laboratory rodents in a semi natural laboratory setting. By recording the frequencies, durations, latencies and temporal and sequential patterns of all the observed behavioral acts and postures in the combatants during these confrontations, a detailed quantitative picture (ethogram) of offensive (resident) and defensive (intruder) aggression is obtained. For extensive descriptions of the various behaviors see 3, 12, 18. The paradigm is based on the fact that an adult male rat will establish a territory when given sufficient living space. Territoriality is strongly enhanced in the presence of females and/or sexual experience 1. As a consequence of territoriality, the resident will attack unfamiliar males intruding in its home cage. Hence, offensive aggression can be studied by using the resident as the experimental animal. To determine the violent nature of aggression one can assess whether the offense is out of context and inhibitory control by using different types of intruders such as females or anesthetized males or a novel environment. A detailed quantitative analysis of the offensive behavioral repertoire is required to reveal to what extent the observed aggression is out of control.
The intruders in the resident-intruder paradigm will show defensive behavior in response to the offensive attacks by the resident. The paradigm therefore also allows one to study defensive behavior and social stress by using the intruder as the experimental animal. A form of chronic social stress can be created by repeatedly using the experimental animal as intruder, or by housing it in the cage (territory) of the resident, separated by a wire mesh screen 4.
	Like any kind of stress paradigm, the resident-intruder paradigm is not free from ethical concerns. We therefore want to present a number of ethical considerations. Aggression, violence and social stress are serious problems in our human society. A report of the World Health Organization shows that interpersonal violence is not only a major source of death worldwide it is also a major source of serious health problems in the surviving victims of aggression 19. Hence, there is a need to understand these behaviors in terms of their underlying causal mechanisms and modulating factors. Animal models are essential to obtain experimental support of the causal nature of physiological and environmental factors. From a biological point of view, aggression is a natural, biologically functional form of social behavior aimed at the establishment of a territory, social dominance and defense of resources. The resident-intruder paradigm brings this natural form of behavior into a laboratory setting that allows for controlled studies of both the aggressor and the victim. An issue of ethical concern is the question to what extent the animal's welfare is compromised when exposed to this paradigm. Several studies show that engaging in offensive aggressive behaviors and winning a fight are highly rewarding and/or reinforcing 11. From that perspective, there is no suffering in the resident. However, an aggressive interaction requires an opponent as well. Defensive behavior and submission belongs to the natural repertoire to cope with dominance. Defeat and subjugation triggers an adaptive behavioral and physiological response aimed at adopting a subordinate position in a social group. From that point of view, the initial response during the defeat will lead to a well-adapted animal that does not necessarily suffer 15. Only repeated exposure to a dominant and social isolation after the defeat may lead to a condition that goes beyond the adaptive capacity of the animal. This makes the paradigm suitable as an animal model for stress pathology with a high ecological validity 17. Although the stress of social defeat is mainly of a psychosocial nature, physical harm and injury may occur. In a normal (non-violent) social interaction, this physical harm is limited. Biting occurs mainly at the back and flanks of the opponent; an area of the body with a thick and tough skin 5, 6. Biting is in fact brief nipping of the skin, leaving behind small imprints of the incisors. This type of skin damage does not require any veterinary care. However, biologically functional aggression may change to a pathological, violent form of aggression which is out of control and out of context. In these situations, more serious wounds inflicted in particular at vulnerable body regions (belly, throat and paws) may occur 14. To be clinically relevant, experimental model systems for violent aggressive behavior need to be valid, and this development poses a central ethical dilemma of this type of aggression research, namely harm and injury. Two countervailing principles govern this research: face validity is achieved when the behavior is potentially harmful and injurious, yet, at the same time, every ethical research guideline emphasizes the reduction and avoidance of the risk to be harmed or injured. Each research question and protocol needs to probe how much harm and injury is necessary or acceptable to generate scientifically valid information that can be translated into concerns of the public health system. When research on violence is the main aim of the experiment, it is self-evident that great care should be taken of the victim in terms of wound care or even euthanasia. The presence of serious wounding at vulnerable body regions should be the humanitarian endpoint of the intruder. When social stress is the main aim of the experiment, the interaction should be stopped when the resident shows signs of violence causing serious bite wounds at vulnerable body parts. After all, the psychosocial nature of the stress paradigm should not be mixed with the stress of severe physical injury. When residents show these signs of violence they should be excluded from the experiment.

the resident-intruder paradigm: a standardized test for aggression, violence and social stress

This video publication explains in detail the experimental protocol of the resident-intruder paradigm in rats. This test is a standardized method to measure offensive aggression and defensive behavior in a semi natural setting. The most important behavioral elements performed by the resident and the intruder are demonstrated in the video and illustrated using artistic drawings. The use of the resident intruder paradigm for acute and chronic social stress experiments is explained as well. Finally, some brief tests and criteria are presented to distinguish aggression from its more violent and pathological forms.

There is a considerable variation between strains and within strains in the level of offensive aggressive behavior. This is demonstrated in Figure 1 which shows the frequency distribution of the offensive aggression score in a laboratory bred but originally feral strain of rats (Wild Type Groningen strain (WTG)) (Figure 1a) and a more common strain of laboratory rats (Wistar, Figure 1b). In the WTG strain, about one third of the animals is extremely aggressive whereas another third is not or very low aggressive. This is in contrast to the frequency distribution of a Wistar strain in which the highly aggressive phenotype is absent and about fifty percent of the animals can be considered as low or non-aggressive 16.
	Figure 2 shows the distribution of different behavioral categories in the resident-intruder paradigm with the WTG strain as residents (Figure 2a) and the Wistar rats as intruders (Figure 2b). Shown is the average composition of offensive behavior in the WTG resident rat and the average composition of defensive behavior in the Wistar intruder in terms of the relative amount of time spent on the various behaviors.
Figure 3 shows an example of the use of the resident-intruder paradigm in behavioral pharmacology. The selective serotonin 1a receptor agonist Alnespirone induces a dose dependent reduction in offensive aggression, which is accompanied by a dose dependent increase in social exploration. The absence of any significant effects on non-social exploration and inactivity supports the view that the behavioral effects of this compound are specific for offensive aggression 9.
In some individuals offensive aggression may escalate into a violent form of aggression. The distinction between high levels of aggression and violence is illustrated in Figure 4. Despite the fact that there is no statistical difference in offense score, the violent form of aggression is characterized by a very short attack latency, attack of an anesthetized male or a female, serious wounding and a very low threat attack ratio 8.
<img src="/files/ftp_upload/4367/4367fig1.jpg" alt="Figure 1" fo:content-width="3in" fo:src="/files/ftp_upload/4367/4367fig1highres.jpg"/> 
Figure 1. Frequency distribution of individual levels of offensive aggression in a laboratory bred, but originally feral rat strain (A - Top panel) and in a Wistar strain of male rats (B - Bottom panel) 16.
<img src="/files/ftp_upload/4367/4367fig2.jpg" alt="Figure 2" fo:content-width="3in" fo:src="/files/ftp_upload/4367/4367fig2highres.jpg"/> 
Figure 2. Behavioral profile of resident males WTG rats (A) and Wistar intruder rats (B) during a ten minutes resident intruder test.
<img src="/files/ftp_upload/4367/4367fig3.jpg" alt="Figure 3" fo:content-width="4.5in" fo:src="/files/ftp_upload/4367/4367fig3highres.jpg"/> 
Figure 3. Dose dependent reduction of offensive aggression by the 5-HT1a agonist Alnespirone 9. <a href="https://www.jove.com/files/ftp_upload/4367/4367fig3large.jpg" target="_blank"> Click here to view larger figure</a>.
<img src="/files/ftp_upload/4367/4367fig4.jpg" alt="Figure 4" fo:content-width="2.75in" fo:src="/files/ftp_upload/4367/4367fig4highres.jpg"/> 
Figure 4. Comparison between highly offensive males and violent males 8.

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about The Resident-intruder Paradigm: A Standardized Test for Aggression, Violence and Social Stress at JoVE.com

The Resident-intruder Paradigm: A Standardized Test for Aggression, Violence and Social Stress

This video shows the resident-intruder paradigm in rats. This test is a standardized method to measure offensive aggression, defensive behavior and violence in a semi-natural setting. The use of the paradigm for social stress experiments is explained as well.

This video publication explains in detail the experimental protocol of the resident-intruder paradigm in rats. This test is a standardized method to ...

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Research

JoVE Journal

Behavior

70.5K Views.  University Groningen. This video shows the resident-intruder paradigm in rats. This test is a standardized method to measure offensive aggression, defensive behavior and violence in a semi-natural setting. The use of the paradigm for social stress experiments is explained as well.

Video: The Resident-intruder Paradigm: A Standardized Test for Aggression, Violence and Social Stress

Using Chronic Social Stress to Model Postpartum Depression in Lactating Rodents

Exposure to chronic stress is a reliable predictor of depressive disorders, and social stress is a common ethologically relevant stressor in both animals and humans. However, many animal models of depression were developed in males and are not applicable or effective in studies of postpartum females. Recent studies have reported significant effects of chronic social stress during lactation, an ethologically relevant and effective stressor, on maternal behavior, growth, and behavioral neuroendocrinology. This manuscript will describe this chronic social stress paradigm using repeated exposure of a lactating dam to a novel male intruder, and the assessment of the behavioral, physiological, and neuroendocrine effects of this model. Chronic social stress (CSS) is a valuable model for studying the effects of stress on the behavior and physiology of the dam as well as her offspring and future generations. The exposure of pups to CSS can also be used as an early life stress that has long term effects on behavior, physiology, and neuroendocrinology.

This article describes the use of chronic resident intruder social stress as an ethologically relevant paradigm to model postpartum depression and anxiety in lactating rodents.

Exposure to chronic stress is a reliable predictor of depressive disorders, and social stress is a common ethologically relevant stressor in both animals ...

Assessment of Social Interaction Behaviors

Social interactions are a fundamental and adaptive component of the biology of numerous species. Social recognition is critical for the structure and stability of the networks and relationships that define societies. For animals, such as mice, recognition of conspecifics may be important for maintaining social hierarchy and for mate choice 1.
A variety of neuropsychiatric disorders are characterized by disruptions in social behavior and social recognition, including depression, autism spectrum disorders, bipolar disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and schizophrenia. Studies of humans as well as animal models (e.g., Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus) have identified genes involved in the regulation of social behavior 2. To assess sociability in animal models, several behavioral tests have been developed (reviewed in 3). Integrative research using animal models and appropriate tests for social behavior may lead to the development of improved treatments for social psychopathologies.
The three-chamber paradigm test known as Crawley's sociability and preference for social novelty protocol has been successfully employed to study social affiliation and social memory in several inbred and mutant mouse lines (e.g. 4-7). The main principle of this test is based on the free choice by a subject mouse to spend time in any of three box's compartments during two experimental sessions, including indirect contact with one or two mice with which it is unfamiliar. To quantitate social tendencies of the experimental mouse, the main tasks are to measure a) the time spent with a novel conspecific and b) preference for a novel vs. a familiar conspecific. Thus, the experimental design of this test allows evaluation of two critical but distinguishable aspects of social behavior, such as social affiliation/motivation, as well as social memory and novelty. "Sociability" in this case is defined as propensity to spend time with another mouse, as compared to time spent alone in an identical but empty chamber 7. "Preference for social novelty" is defined as propensity to spend time with a previously unencountered mouse rather than with a familiar mouse 7. This test provides robust results, which then must be carefully analyzed, interpreted and supported/confirmed by alternative sociability tests. In addition to specific applications, Crawley's sociability test can be included as an important component of general behavioral screen of mutant mice.

Here we describe a detailed protocol for examination of sociability in mice by using Crawley's sociability and preference for social novelty test. We describe the advantages and possible applications for this procedure, including critical details important for correct interpretation of the results.

Social interactions are a fundamental and adaptive component of the biology of numerous species. Social recognition is critical for the structure and ...

Neuroscience

The Trier Social Stress Test Protocol for Inducing Psychological Stress

This article demonstrates a psychological stress protocol for use in a laboratory setting. Protocols that allow researchers to study the biological pathways of the stress response in health and disease are fundamental to the progress of research in stress and anxiety.1 Although numerous protocols exist for inducing stress response in the laboratory, many neglect to provide a naturalistic context or to incorporate aspects of social and psychological stress. Of psychological stress protocols, meta-analysis suggests that the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is the most useful and appropriate standardized protocol for studies of stress hormone reactivity.2 In the original description of the TSST, researchers sought to design and evaluate a procedure capable of inducing a reliable stress response in the majority of healthy volunteers.3 These researchers found elevations in heart rate, blood pressure and several endocrine stress markers in response to the TSST (a psychological stressor) compared to a saline injection (a physical stressor).3 Although the TSST has been modified to meet the needs of various research groups, it generally consists of a waiting period upon arrival, anticipatory speech preparation, speech performance, and verbal arithmetic performance periods, followed by one or more recovery periods. The TSST requires participants to prepare and deliver a speech, and verbally respond to a challenging arithmetic problem in the presence of a socially evaluative audience.3 Social evaluation and uncontrollability have been identified as key components of stress induction by the TSST.4 In use for over a decade, the goal of the TSST is to systematically induce a stress response in order to measure differences in reactivity, anxiety and activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) or sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) axis during the task.1 Researchers generally assess changes in self-reported anxiety, physiological measures (e.g. heart rate), and/or neuroendocrine indices (e.g. the stress hormone cortisol) in response to the TSST. Many investigators have adopted salivary sampling for stress markers such as cortisol and alpha-amylase (a marker of autonomic nervous system activation) as an alternative to blood sampling to reduce the confounding stress of blood-collection techniques. In addition to changes experienced by an individual completing the TSST, researchers can compare changes between different treatment groups (e.g. clinical versus healthy control samples) or the effectiveness of stress-reducing interventions.1

This article describes a protocol for inducing psychological stress in participants, which enables researchers to measure psychological, physiological and neuroendocrine responses to stress within single participants or between groups.

This article demonstrates a psychological stress protocol for use in a laboratory setting.  Protocols that allow researchers to study the biological ...

Medicine

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test

In many situations humans are influenced by the behavior of other people and their relationships with them. For example, in stressful situations supportive behavior of other people as well as positive social relationships can act as powerful resources to cope with stress. In order to study the interplay between these variables, this protocol describes two effective experimental manipulations of social relationships and supportive behavior in the laboratory. In the present article, these two manipulations are implemented in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)&#8212;a standard stress induction paradigm in which participants are subjected to a simulated job interview. More precisely, we propose (a) a manipulation of the relationship between different protagonists in the TSST by making a shared social identity salient and (b) a manipulation of the behavior of the TSST-selection committee, which acts either supportively or unsupportively. These two experimental manipulations are designed in a modular fashion and can be applied independently of each other but can also be combined. Moreover, these two manipulations can also be integrated into other stress protocols and into other standardized social interactions such as trust games, negotiation tasks, or other group tasks.

Previous research on the social dimension of stress has focused on two important variables: social identity and social support. This protocol introduces an effective experimental manipulation of these two social variables and describes their implementation in a standard stress induction paradigm (Trier Social Stress Test).

In many situations humans are influenced by the behavior of other people and their relationships with them. For example, in stressful situations ...

A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents

The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is a well validated and widely used social stressor that has been shown to induce a 2-4 fold increase in cortisol, the biological output produced by the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis in humans. While studies have explored how modifications to the TSST influence stress responsivity, few studies have created a modified TSST appropriate for vulnerable youth that elicits a significant cortisol stress response. Thus, the current study sought to modify or adjust the TSST in a culturally sensitive way for a vulnerable sample of 14 year-old adolescents. The present study took place within the context of a longitudinal birth cohort study of Mexican American families in California called the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS). The CHAMACOS sample was optimal to test the effectiveness of a modified culturally appropriate TSST, as it is comprised of Mexican American youth, who are often excluded from research. These youths also have experienced significant early life adversity. Example modifications included timed prompts, alternative math tasks, use of same-ethnicity peers as confederates, debriefing immediately after the conclusion of the TSST, and using an unknown youth examiner to administer the debrief. Saliva samples were collected at baseline (after a resting phase), and then again at 15, 30, and 45 min post-TSST onset to assess cortisol concentration. A pilot study of 50 participants (50% female) have been analyzed for cortisol reaction to the TSST. Results confirmed that this modified version of the TSST was successful at eliciting a significant cortisol reaction, with a wide range of variability likely due to individual differences. Goals for modifications and ethnicity considerations are discussed. This study provides the foundation for future research to utilize a modified TSST with vulnerable youth.

Here, we present a protocol that provoked cortisol reactivity in a vulnerable adolescent Mexican American sample utilizing a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Saliva samples were collected at baseline, 15, 30, and 45 min post-TSST onset. Future research could utilize this modified TSST with vulnerable youth.

The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is a well validated and widely used social stressor that has been shown to induce a 2-4 fold increase in cortisol, the ...

Developmental Biology

Enactive Phenomenological Approach to the Trier Social Stress Test: A Mixed Methods Point of View

The single Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and the TSST for groups (TSST-G) are the most used protocols to experimentally induce psychosocial stress. These tests are based on uncontrollability and social-evaluative threat, inducing psychological and physiological consequences (e.g., anxiety, emotional states, salivary cortisol increases). Many quantitative experimental studies have investigated these stress inducers and these consequences. But, as far as we know, this study is the first to provide a qualitative analysis to access the participants' voices so as to understand the dynamics of their experience throughout the TSST and the TSST-G. This paper outlines a mixed methods approach to the TSST. This approach can help to maximize the information that can be gained from the TSST, which researchers often use without looking more closely at what is qualitatively happening psychologically for participants during the stressor itself. In this way, this protocol is an example of mixed methods, showing the added value of using the enactive phenomenological approach to analyze experimental protocols more deeply. This kind of mixed methods is helpful to access the experience, to understand the actor's point of view, and to analyze in-depth the dynamics of cognitive processes like intentions, perceptions, enacted knowledge, and emotion. The discussion section shows the different uses of a mixed methods protocol, exploiting the enactive phenomenological approach to analyze a protocol or to give a cross vision of the same research subject. This section deals with different existing applications, pointing out some critical steps in this mixed methods approach.

Here, we present an original mixed method combining a quantitative and a qualitative approach to examine accurately participants&#39; experiences during the Trier Social Stress Test and the Trier Social Stress Test for groups.

The single Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and the TSST for groups (TSST-G) are the most used protocols to experimentally induce psychosocial stress. ...

Assessing Dominant-Submissive Behavior in Adult Rats Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Competition over resources such as food, territory, and mates significantly influences relationships within animal species and is mediated through social hierarchies that are often based on dominant-submissive relationships. The dominant-submissive relationship is a normal behavioral pattern among the individuals of a species. Traumatic brain injury is a frequent cause of social interaction impairment and the reorganization of dominant-submissive relationships in animal pairs. This protocol describes submissive behavior in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats after the induction of traumatic brain injury using a fluid-percussion model compared to naive rats through a series of dominant-submissive tests performed between 29 days and 33 days after induction. The dominant-submissive behavior test shows how brain injury can induce submissive behavior in animals competing for food. After traumatic brain injury, the rodents were more submissive, as indicated by them spending less time at the feeder and being less likely to arrive first at the trough compared to the control animals. According to this protocol, submissive behavior develops after traumatic brain injury in adult male rats.

The present protocol describes a rat model of fluid percussion-induced traumatic brain injury followed by a series of behavioral tests to understand the development of dominant and submissive behavior. Using this model of traumatic brain injury in conjunction with specific behavioral tests enables the study of social impairments following brain injury.

Competition over resources such as food, territory, and mates significantly influences relationships within animal species and is mediated through social ...

Threat-Safety Test for Stress Susceptibility or Resilience in Mice Models

Social Threat-Safety Test Uncovers Psychosocial Stress-Related Phenotypes

Social stress is a major cause of the development of mental disorders. To enhance the translational value of preclinical studies, social stress experience and its behavioral impact on mice should be comparable to humans. Chronic social defeat (CSD) utilizes a type of social stress involving physical attacks and sensory threats to induce mental dysfunctions resembling human affective disorders. To strengthen the psychosocial component of CSD, a 10-day CSD protocol was applied in which daily physical attacks are standardized to three 10 s episodes followed by a 24 h sensory phase. After the 10th sensory phase, the CSD protocol is followed by a refined behavioral assay called the social threat-safety test (STST). Post-stress behavioral assays need to determine how and to what extent the social stressor has influenced behavior. The STST allows chronically socially defeated male mice to interact with 2 novel male individuals (social targets): one social target from the attacking strain encountered during the CSD days and the other from a novel strain. Both are presented simultaneously in different compartments of a three-chambered test arena. The test enables a simultaneous assessment of social avoidance development to measure successful aversive conditioned learning and social threat-safety discrimination ability. The development of social avoidance towards both strains reflects a generalized aversive response and thus, a measurement of stress susceptibility. Meanwhile, the development of social avoidance towards only the attacking strain reflects threat-safety discrimination and thus, a measurement of stress resilience. Finally, the absence of social avoidance towards the attacking strain reflects impaired aversive conditioned learning. The protocol aims to refine the currently used mouse models of stress susceptibility/resilience by including translational criteria, specifically threat-safety discrimination and aversive response generalization, to categorize a single group of chronically socially defeated animals into resilient and susceptible subgroups, eventually advancing future translational approaches.

Author Spotlight: Unveiling Mechanisms of Stress Resilience - Significant Findings, Advancements, and Future Research

The social threat-safety test allows a simultaneous assessment of social avoidance development as a measurement of aversive conditioned learning and social threat-safety discrimination ability, both utilized to identify stress-susceptible and stress-resilient individuals within a single group of chronically socially defeated male mice.

Social stress is a major cause of the development of mental disorders. To enhance the translational value of preclinical studies, social stress experience ...

Drosophila Models for Genetic and Behavioral Traits of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Paradigms for Behavioral Assessment in Drosophila Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) encompasses a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders with common behavioral symptoms including deficits in social interaction and ability for communication, enhanced restricted or repetitive behaviors, and also, in some cases, learning disability and motor deficit. Drosophila has served as an unparalleled model organism for modeling a great number of human diseases. As many genes have been implicated in ASD, fruit flies have emerged as a powerful and efficient way to test the genes putatively involved with the disorder. As hundreds of genes, with varied functional roles, are implicated in ASD, a single genetic fly model of ASD is unfeasible; instead, individual genetic mutants, gene knockdowns, or overexpression-based studies of the fly homologs of ASD-associated genes are the common means for gaining insight regarding molecular pathways underlying these gene products. A host of behavioral techniques are available in Drosophila which provide easy readout of deficits in specific behavioral components. Social space assay and aggression and courtship assays in flies have been shown to be useful in assessing defects in social interaction or communication. Grooming behavior in flies is an excellent readout of repetitive behavior. Habituation assay is used in flies to estimate the ability for habituation learning, which is found to be affected in some ASD patients. A combination of these behavioral paradigms can be utilized to make a thorough assessment of the human ASD-like disease state in flies. Using Fmr1 mutant flies, recapitulating Fragile-X syndrome in humans, and POGZ-homolog row knockdown in fly neurons, we have shown quantifiable deficits in social spacing, aggression, courtship behavior, grooming behavior, and habituation. These behavioral paradigms are demonstrated here in their simplest and straightforward forms with an assumption that it would facilitate their widespread use for research on ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders in fly models.

Author Spotlight: Exploring Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms in Fruit Flies &#8212; Genetic Models and Behavioral Tests

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is associated with impaired social and communicative behavior and the emergence of repetitive behavior. For studying the interrelation between ASD genes and behavioral deficits in the Drosophila model, five behavioral paradigms are described in this paper for assaying social spacing, aggression, courtship, grooming, and habituation behavior.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) encompasses a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders with common behavioral symptoms including deficits in ...

Modeling Social Stress

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.

Physiology of Stress; Social Stress- Resident-Intruder Task

Stress negatively affects our quality of life. In particular, some individuals experience social stress when placed in a social environment that they are ...