Mateus-Pinheiro António, Patrício Patrícia, Alves Nuno D, Machado-Santos Ana R, Morais Monica, Bessa João M, Sousa Nuno, Pinto Luisa
School of Health Sciences, Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), University of Minho Braga, Portugal ; ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory Braga/Guimarães, Portugal.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2014 Mar 7;8:74. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00074. eCollection 2014.
Measuring anhedonic behavior in rodents is a challenging task as current methods display only moderate sensitivity to detect anhedonic phenotype and, consequently, results from different labs are frequently incongruent. Herein we present a newly-developed test, the Sweet Drive Test (SDT), which integrates food preference measurement in a non-aversive environment, with ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) recording. Animals were placed in a soundproofed black arena, under red light illumination, and allowed to choose between regular and sweet food pellets. During the test trials, 50 KHz USVs, previously described to be associated with positive experiences, were recorded. In a first experimental approach, we demonstrate the ability of SDT to accurately characterize anhedonic behavior in animals chronically exposed to stress. In a subsequent set of experiments, we show that this paradigm has high sensitivity to detect mood-improving effects of antidepressants. The combined analysis of both food preference and the number of 50 KHz vocalizations in the SDT provides also a valuable tool to discriminate animals that responded to treatment from non-responder animals.
测量啮齿动物的快感缺失行为是一项具有挑战性的任务，因为当前的方法在检测快感缺失表型方面仅表现出中等灵敏度，因此，不同实验室的结果常常不一致。在此，我们介绍一种新开发的测试方法——甜味驱动测试（SDT），该方法将在无厌恶环境中测量食物偏好与记录超声波发声（USV）相结合。将动物置于隔音的黑色实验场中，在红光照明下，让它们在普通食物颗粒和甜味食物颗粒之间进行选择。在测试过程中，记录先前被描述为与积极体验相关的50千赫兹USV。在第一个实验方法中，我们证明了SDT能够准确地描述长期暴露于应激的动物的快感缺失行为。在随后的一系列实验中，我们表明该范式在检测抗抑郁药的情绪改善效果方面具有高灵敏度。SDT中食物偏好和50千赫兹发声次数的联合分析也为区分对治疗有反应的动物和无反应的动物提供了一个有价值的工具。
