Girls gone wild: Social isolation induces hyperactivity and exploration in aged female mice

D. Gregory Sullens; Kayla Gilley; Kendall Jensen; Melanie J. Sekeres

In summary, late-life social isolation in aged female mice did not lead to robust depressive-like symptomology, altered social interaction behavior, or sensitivity to context fear acquisition and memory. Rather, isolation . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.15.043877 doi: bioRxiv preprint 7 increased hyperactivity and exploration, findings that have been similarly observed in both sexes following earlylife isolation. In human populations, social isolation and loneliness correlate with cognitive decline, depression, and anxiety (Cacioppo et al., 2006; Domènech-Abella et al., 2019) . Understanding the behavioral impacts of latelife isolation is especially relevant given the current self-isolation recommendations, particularly for females whose are more likely than males to live alone. By identifying behavioral disturbances in behavior following isolation the results will be useful for informing the likely cognitive and psychological impact of isolation in response to the recent social isolation experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.