Protocol to study dam-pup social transmission using a modified paradigm for transmission of food preference

• Main Authors: Ham, Gao Xiang, Ong, Jonathan Z., Augustine, George James, Leong, Victoria
• Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Medicine, Health and Life Sciences; Cognitive Neuroscience; Developmental biology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/179665
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The social transmission of food preference, a rudimentary form of social learning, has primarily been studied in pairs of adult rodents. Here, we present a protocol to explore the parent-offspring context in social learning using an adaptation of this classic paradigm for rodent dam-pup dyads. We describe steps for studying weanling mice from the same mother and present a worked example using weight-based (food consumption) and time-based (exploration) indices of social learning.