Social transmission of valence-linked new knowledge without firsthand experience in mice

Animals can acquire new knowledge by observing others’ contexts and behavior, a process called social learning, which is essential for animals to survive in nature. While the social transmission of food preference (STFP) was previously adopted as a social learning test, several studies pointed out that non-social parameters might influence its food preference. We re-evaluated critical steps in the STFP test and designed an improved social learning test, which we now refer to as social transmission of food finding (STFF). A significant advance in the STFF test is the demonstration that mice learned the odor-food relationship with either positive or negative valence from the demonstrator without prior experience in the observer. Furthermore, a circuit dissection experiment showed that hippocampal function was differentially involved during learning and recall for STFF. Thus, STFF constitutes a highly advantageous social learning model in which valence-linked new knowledge can be socially transmitted without firsthand experience.