Mice raised in isolation are unsociable and slow to learn complex tasks as adults. Failure to develop normal coatings around neurons during a crucial growth period could explain these deficits.
Gabriel Corfas at Boston Children's Hospital in Massachusetts and his colleagues found that mice isolated between 21 and 35 days old were particularly vulnerable to lasting effects. In these mice, oligodendrocytes — cells that produce the fatty layers which sheath neurons to facilitate electrical signalling — made abnormally thin sheaths in the prefrontal cortex, an area linked to sociability and memory.
In the same brain area, isolated mice showed reduced levels of NRG1, a protein that has a role in oligodendrocyte development. Mice engineered to lack an NRG1 receptor in oligodendrocytes mimicked the negative effects of isolation, suggesting that social experience might affect neural development through the NRG1 signalling pathway.
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Social isolation thins neural sheath. Nature 489, 339 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/489339b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/489339b
