TY - JOUR TI - Testosterone pulses paired with a location induce a place preference to the nest of a monogamous mouse under field conditions AU - Petric, Radmila AU - Kalcounis-Rueppell, Matina AU - Marler, Catherine A A2 - Tessmar-Raible, Kristin A2 - Rutz, Christian VL - 11 PY - 2022 DA - 2022/03/30 SP - e65820 C1 - eLife 2022;11:e65820 DO - 10.7554/eLife.65820 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65820 AB - Changing social environments such as the birth of young or aggressive encounters present a need to adjust behavior. Previous research examined how long-term changes in steroid hormones mediate these adjustments. We tested the novel concept that the rewarding effects of transient testosterone pulses (T-pulses) in males after social encounters alter their spatial distribution on a territory. In free-living monogamous California mice (Peromyscus californicus), males administered three T-injections at the nest spent more time at the nest than males treated with placebo injections. This mimics T-induced place preferences in the laboratory. Female mates of T-treated males spent less time at the nest but the pair produced more vocalizations and call types than controls. Traditionally, transient T-changes were thought to have transient behavioral effects. Our work demonstrates that in the wild, when T-pulses occur in a salient context such as a territory, the behavioral effects last days after T-levels return to baseline. KW - testosterone KW - California mouse KW - vocal communication KW - social behavior KW - pair-bond KW - spatial preference JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -