Adolescent social isolation induces persistent impairments in prosocial behavior

Recognizing when others are distressed and responding with care helps social animals, including humans, build strong relationships. But how does this capacity develop, and what role do early social experiences play?
Working with Dr. Yi Zuo’s lab at UC Santa Cruz, we found that just two weeks of social isolation (single housing) during adolescence impaired mice’s ability to distinguish between stressed and unstressed mice and reduced their tendency to help through grooming. These difficulties persisted even after the mice returned to group housing for two months. In contrast, mice isolated as adults could still distinguish stressed from unstressed mice, but they failed to help others.
These findings highlight adolescence as a sensitive period for developing the ability to recognize and respond to others’ distress. They also show that recognizing distress does not necessarily lead to helping. The study lays the groundwork for exploring how early social experiences shape the brain systems that support social connection and caring behavior, and may offer insights into why adolescence is a vulnerable time for social and emotional difficulties.
This work is published in eNeuro.