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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Aug 16.
Published in final edited form as: ACS Chem Neurosci. 2018 Apr 6;9(8):1939–1950. doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00475

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Monogamous prairie voles and nonmonogamous meadow voles provide comparative models for understanding pair bonding and attachment behaviors in adults. (A) A prairie vole pair with offspring. Photo credit: Todd Ahern. (B) A solitary meadow vole. Photo credit: John White. (C) The partner preference test provides a proxy measure for pair bond formation and expression. A test vole is allowed free range of a three-chambered apparatus with their partner and a novel, opposite-sex vole tethered on opposite ends. After 3 h, a pair-bonded test vole will spend the majority of their time huddled with partner over the stranger. Photo credit: Paul Muhlrad. (D) Quantification of partner preference behavior for prairie and meadow voles. Adapted from ref 64 with permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd., copyright 2004.