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A standardized social preference protocol for measuring social deficits in mouse models of autism

Nature Protocols volume 15, pages 3464–3477 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social communication deficits and other behavioral abnormalities. The three-chamber social preference test is often used to assess social deficits in mouse models of ASD. However, varying and often contradicting phenotypic descriptions of ASD mouse models can be found in the scientific literature, and the substantial variability in the methods used by researchers to assess social deficits in mice could be a contributing factor. Here we describe a standardized three-chamber social preference protocol, which is sensitive and reliable at detecting social preference deficits in several mouse models of ASD. This protocol comprises three phases that can all be completed within 1 d. The test mouse is first habituated to the apparatus containing two empty cups in the side chambers, followed by the pre-test phase in which the mouse can interact with two identical inanimate objects placed in the cups. During the test phase, the mouse is allowed to interact with a social stimulus (an unfamiliar wild-type (WT) mouse) contained in one cup and a novel non-social stimulus contained in the other cup. The protocol is thus designed to assess preference between social and non-social stimuli under conditions of equal salience. The broad implementation of the three-chamber social preference protocol presented here should improve the accuracy and consistency of assessments for social preference deficits associated with ASD and other psychiatric disorders.

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Fig. 1: Social behavioral data obtained from several transgenic mouse models using the three-phase S–NS protocol.
Fig. 2: Social behavioral data obtained from several ASD mouse models using the two-phase S–E protocol.

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Data availability

An Excel file containing all the statistical data for the two figures is included in the Source Data for Figs. 1 and 2.

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Acknowledgements

We thank X. Chen and A. Frazier for excellent technical support. This work was supported by the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (MH112237) to Z.Y.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Benjamin Rein, Kaijie Ma & Zhen Yan

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  1. Benjamin Rein
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  2. Kaijie Ma
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Contributions

B.R. performed the behavioral experiments and wrote the paper. K.M. performed the behavioral experiments. Z.Y. supervised the project and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Zhen Yan.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Protocols thanks T. Takumi and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Key references using this protocol

Qin, L. et al. Nat. Neurosci. 21, 564–75 (2018): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0110-8

Rein, B. et al Mol. Psychiatry (2020): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-0693-9

Duffney, L. J. et al. Cell Rep. 11, 1400–1413 (2015): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2015.04.064

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Table 1.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Video 1

Representative video of a wild type (WT) mouse in the social preference test phase of the three-phase S–NS method, with commentary.

Supplementary Video 2

Representative video of a Shank3-deficient mouse in the social preference test phase of the three-phase S–NS method, with commentary.

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Rein, B., Ma, K. & Yan, Z. A standardized social preference protocol for measuring social deficits in mouse models of autism. Nat Protoc 15, 3464–3477 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-020-0382-9

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