Topic: Eco-HAB

Human societies are structured in a hierarchical manner, be that the work place, government, the playground, or even home-life. Hierarchies are thought to give a system stability; each node within a social network knowing who is above and who is below. However, there is very little experimental research exploring the dynamics of such hierarchies, particularly in animals. This research aims to address this gap using Eco-HAB, a fully automated, RFID-based system, that allows us to study social hierarchies in mice over extended period of time (e.g., 6 weeks). The experiment began with 3 groups of

Recognizing members of the same social group as in-group individuals occurs swiftly and without conscious effort. The exploration of the neural processes underlying this process can be advanced through behavioral experiments designed to trigger naturalistic social interactions. Here we show a novel experimental approach to studying the formation of social bonds between two groups of mice: genetically identical, however unfamiliar with each other. Animals were placed in Eco-HAB, an automated environment that replicates natural conditions, for 21 days. The habitat was initially split into two, p

From the first moments of life, social mammals become a part of a group. Over time they have “friends” with whom they prefer to spend time and “foes” whom they try to avoid. The ability to assess the dynamics of shifts in relationships is crucial to further our understanding of brain underpinnings of group behaviour. To investigate the stability of social bonds over time, we used groups of laboratory mice. Animals were kept in the fully automated, computer-controlled experimental environment (Eco-HAB) in which they could move freely and form social bonds. Eco-HAB system enables measuring the t