The severity of social defeat is determined by the strength and duration of the stimuli. Although different parameters have been considered in establishing rodent models of social defeat, the key criteria are based on common symptoms, including social avoidance, social fear and social withdrawal [16–18]. Social defeat is established in adult rodent through one or more harmful stimulation, followed by gradual recovery through stress removal. The appropriate social strategy is selected according to past experience and learning ability, involving the acquisition, consolidation, retrieval and extinction of social information under specific conditions. Nevertheless, the duration of social defeat is determined by different behavioral paradigms. The changes in the behavior and responses of brain regions are difficult to correlate with one another. Literature has focused on the formation of social defeat and its mechanisms. Few studies have investigated the process of social defeat from establishment to extinction. Our work aims to explore the time characteristics of the consolidation and extinction of acute social defeat and the simultaneous responses of BLA, vHIP, and mPFC. We utilized the resident–intruder paradigm to establish an animal model of acute social defeat. The duration of the consolidation and extinction of social defeat were evaluated. The temporal features of the responses of BLA, vHIP, and mPFC to acute social defeat were also investigated by quantifying the expression of immediate early genes (IEGs), namely, zif268, arc, and c-fos, which are indicators of neural activity.