Fig. 1: Social experience incentivizes future choice (SIFC).

a Schematic of the SIFC task. Mice were trained to nose poke for two food reinforcers. Next, mice were placed in a chamber with either a novel conspecific or object and with one of the two reinforcers. The next day, each mouse received the other stimulus and pellet. Finally, mice were returned to the instrumental conditioning chambers used in training, and responding was quantified. b Response training; note no systemic preference for the chocolate or grain pellet. c Following the social conditioning phase, mice preferentially responded for the pellet associated with social experience [n = 8; paired t-test]. d The amount of time spent eating during the social conditioning phase predicted later preference for the pellet [calculated as response rates (social/nonsocial); n = 18 across multiple experiments; simple linear regression]. e (top left) Behavioral ethogram depicting behaviors observed during the social conditioning phase. For approximately ¼ of the social conditioning session, the experimental and stimulus mice were in social proximity, or within 1” of each other. (bottom right) Behavioral ethogram depicting behaviors exhibited when in social proximity. The two most commonly observed behaviors were variants of sniffing and grooming. Social rest refers to remaining immobile in close proximity to one another. Body refers to sniffing the body, as opposed to the anogenital region or engaging in nose-to-nose contact. Bars represent means, symbols represent individual mice. Line in (d) is simple linear regression. Shaded area in b = SEM, shaded area in d = 90% confidence interval. *p < 0.05. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.