Assessment of Social Approach Behavior in Mice

Assays of social approach behavior involve measuring the social investigatory behavior of a subject mouse toward a stimulus mouse. Such assays represent a phenotyping tool that may be applied to mouse models of mood and anxiety disorders, as well as other neuropsychiatric disease, to understand how genetic and environmental risk factors impact brain development and behavior. Here we discuss a measure of social approach behavior in mice using a three-chamber apparatus: we start with an overview of the approach, we then present a protocol that utilizes computer-assisted analysis of social approach data, and finally, we provide information on troubleshooting this protocol. The aim of this chapter is to provide investigators with the information necessary to start testing mice for social approach behavior and to adapt the protocol to their particular needs.