Adult male rats tend to avoid adult conspecifics in distress. In this study, we asked whether prior stress experience would modulate social preference for a stressed conspecific using a social affective preference (SAP) test. Male Long-Evans adult rats were assigned to the shocked and non-shocked groups. In the shocked group, rats were acutely subjected to foot shocks (1.0 mA, 5 s duration × 2) 24 h before the SAP test. During the SAP test, the experimental rats were placed in an arena where two adult conspecific stimuli, one of which received the foot shocks immediately before the SAP test, were presented at both ends and allowed to explore freely for 5 min. We measured sniffing behavior toward each conspecific as an index of social preference. Non-shocked adult rats avoided, while shocked rats approached, the stressed conspecifics more than the non-stressed ones. These results suggest that prior stress promotes social preference for a stressed conspecific in adult male rats.

成年雄性大鼠倾向于避免遇险的成年同种。在这项研究中，我们使用社会情感偏好 (SAP) 测试询问先前的压力经历是否会调节对压力个体的社会偏好。雄性 Long-Evans 成年大鼠被分配到电击组和非电击组。在电击组中，大鼠在 SAP 测试前 24 小时受到急性足部电击（1.0 mA，持续时间 5 秒×2）。在 SAP 测试期间，实验大鼠被放置在两个成年同种刺激物（其中一个在 SAP 测试前立即接受足部电击）的场地中，并在其两端呈现并允许自由探索 5 分钟。我们测量了对每个同种的嗅探行为作为社会偏好的指数。未休克的成年老鼠避开，而休克的老鼠走近，强调的同种比非强调的多。这些结果表明，先前的压力会促进成年雄性大鼠对压力同种的社会偏好。