Social Endophenotypes in Mouse Models of Psychiatric Disease

Abstract

Humans are a highly affiliative species. From the onset of parental care to the formation and dissolution of friendships or partnerships, much of life is spent in dynamic social relationships. These relationships greatly influence our health and livelihood (Seeman 1996). Hence, diseases that affect social functioning have drastic impacts on our well-being. Indeed, disruptions of socio-communicative behaviors represent pervasive features across several psychiatric diseases. These features include the social interaction and communication impairments of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and the multifarious social impairments of mood and personality disorders. Similar impairments in socio-communicative behaviors across psychiatric diseases hint at common genetic and neurobiological sources. In two of these diseases, ASDs and schizophrenia, socio-communicative impairments have been put forth as candidate endophenotypes, or components of disease that reside between genes and symptoms. Being linked to underlying genetic sources, endophenotypes are tractable features for study in animal models, particularly mice. Although mice possess a much more rudimentary behavioral repertoire than humans, under close examination they exhibit a range of complex social behaviors. Furthermore, with current transgenic technologies, mouse models embodying targeted gene mutations can inform our understanding of genetic sources, and therefore endophenotypes, of psychiatric disease. In this chapter, characteristic socio-communicative deficits of ASDs and schizophrenia will be discussed in the context of the endophenotype concept and mapped onto contemporary behavioral assays employed in mouse models of psychiatric disease. First, the genetic etiology of ASDs and schizophrenia and the application of the endophenotype concept will be overviewed. Then, candidate socio-communicative endophenotypes in these disorders will be discussed. Against this background, the application of various social interaction and communication paradigms in mouse models of psychiatric disease will be reviewed. The overarching aim of this chapter is to highlight the growing capabilities of studying sociocommunication behavior in mouse models so that associated endophenotypes in psychiatric diseases can be better understood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)