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Specificity In Sociality: Mice And Prairie Voles Exhibit Different Patterns Of Peer Affiliation, Annaliese K. Beery, Jennifer D. Christensen, Nicole S. Lee, Katrina L. Blandino

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Social behavior is often described as a unified concept, but highly social (group- living) species exhibit distinct social structures and may make different social decisions. Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) are socially monogamous rodents that often reside in extended family groups, and exhibit robust preferences for familiar social partners (same- and opposite-sex) during extended choice tests, although short-term preferences are not known. Mice (Mus musculus) are gregarious and colonial, but in brief laboratory tests of social preference they typically prefer social novelty. This preference for novel vs. familiar peers may represent a species-specific difference in social decision-making between mice and prairie …