Jörimann Marielle, Maliković Jovana, Wolfer David P, Pryce Christopher R, Endo Toshihiro, Benner Seico, Amrein Irmgard
Institute of Anatomy, Division Functional Neuroanatomy, University Zurich, Switzerland.
Institute of Anatomy, Division Functional Neuroanatomy, University Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland.
Neuroscience. 2023 Feb 1;510:157-170. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2022.11.011. Epub 2022 Nov 17.
Impulsivity is a personality trait of healthy individuals, but in extreme forms common in mental disorders. Previous behavioral testing of wild-caught bank voles and wood mice suggested impulsiveness in bank voles. Here, we compared behavioral performance of bank voles and wood mice in tests for response control in the IntelliCage. In the reaction time task, a test similar to the five-choice serial-reaction time task (5CSRTT), bank voles made more premature responses. Impulsivity in the reaction time task was associated with smaller medial habenular nucleus in bank voles. Additional tests revealed reduced behavioral flexibility in the self-paced flexibility task in bank voles, but equal spatial and reversal learning in the chaining/reversal task in both species. Expression of immediate early gene Arc after behavioral testing was low in medial prefrontal cortex, but high in hypothalamic supraoptic and paraventricular nucleus in bank voles. Wood mice showed the opposite pattern. Numbers of Arc-positive cells in the dorsal hippocampus were higher in bank voles than wood mice. Due to continuous behavioral testing (24/7), associations between behavioral performance and Arc were rare. Corticosterone measurements at the end of experiments suggested that IntelliCage testing did not elicit a stress response in these wild rodents. In summary, habenular size differences and altered activation of brain areas after testing might indicate differently balanced activations of cortico-limbic and cortico-hypothalamic circuits in bank voles compared to wood mice. Behavioral performance of bank voles suggest that these rodents could be a natural animal model for investigating impulsive and perseverative behaviors.
冲动是健康个体的一种人格特质,但在精神障碍中常见的极端形式中也存在。先前对野生捕获的田鼠和林鼠进行的行为测试表明田鼠具有冲动性。在这里,我们比较了田鼠和林鼠在智能笼中反应控制测试中的行为表现。在反应时间任务中,这是一种类似于五选择连续反应时间任务(5CSRTT)的测试,田鼠做出了更多的过早反应。反应时间任务中的冲动性与田鼠较小的内侧缰核有关。额外的测试表明,田鼠在自定节奏的灵活性任务中的行为灵活性降低,但在两种物种的连锁/反转任务中空间学习和反转学习能力相当。行为测试后,内侧前额叶皮质中即刻早期基因Arc的表达较低,但在田鼠的下丘脑视上核和室旁核中较高。林鼠表现出相反的模式。田鼠背侧海马中Arc阳性细胞的数量高于林鼠。由于持续的行为测试(全天候),行为表现与Arc之间的关联很少见。实验结束时的皮质酮测量表明,智能笼测试并未在这些野生啮齿动物中引发应激反应。总之,缰核大小差异以及测试后脑区激活的改变可能表明,与林鼠相比,田鼠的皮质-边缘和皮质-下丘脑回路的激活平衡有所不同。田鼠的行为表现表明,这些啮齿动物可能是研究冲动和固执行为的天然动物模型。