16509
2016
eng
97
10
article
1
2018-07-20
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The Unexpected Effects of Beneficial and Adverse Social Experiences during Adolescence on Anxiety and Aggression and Their Modulation by Genotype
Anxiety and aggression are part of the behavioral repertoire of humans and animals. However, in their exaggerated form both can become maladaptive and result in psychiatric disorders. On the one hand, genetic predisposition has been shown to play a crucial modulatory role in anxiety and aggression. On the other hand, social experiences have been implicated in the modulation of these traits. However, so far, mainly experiences in early life phases have been considered crucial for shaping anxiety-like and aggressive behavior, while the phase of adolescence has largely been neglected. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to elucidate how levels of anxiety-like and aggressive behavior are shaped by social experiences during adolescence and serotonin transporter (5-HTT) genotype. For this purpose, male mice of a 5-HTT knockout mouse model including all three genotypes (wildtype, heterozygous and homozygous 5-HTT knockout mice) were either exposed to an adverse social situation or a beneficial social environment during adolescence. This was accomplished in a custom-made cage system where mice experiencing the adverse environment were repeatedly introduced to the territory of a dominant opponent but had the possibility to escape to a refuge cage. Mice encountering beneficial social conditions had free access to a female mating partner. Afterwards, anxiety-like and aggressive behavior was assessed in a battery of tests. Surprisingly, unfavorable conditions during adolescence led to a decrease in anxiety-like behavior and an increase in exploratory locomotion. Additionally, aggressive behavior was augmented in animals that experienced social adversity. Concerning genotype, homozygous 5-HTT knockout mice were more anxious and less aggressive than heterozygous 5-HTT knockout and wildtype mice. In summary, adolescence is clearly an important phase in which anxiety-like and aggressive behavior can be shaped. Furthermore, it seems that having to cope with challenge during adolescence instead of experiencing throughout beneficial social conditions leads to reduced levels of anxiety-like behavior.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00097
urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-165090
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 2016, 10:97. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00097
602805
Neele Meyer
S. Helene Richter
Rebecca S. Schreiber
Vanessa Kloke
Sylvia Kaiser
Klaus-Peter Lesch
Norbert Sachser
eng
uncontrolled
adolescence
eng
uncontrolled
aggressiveness
eng
uncontrolled
serotonin transporter
eng
uncontrolled
coping with challenge
eng
uncontrolled
adversity
eng
uncontrolled
anxiety-like behavior
eng
uncontrolled
social experience
eng
uncontrolled
5-HTT knockout mice
Medizin und Gesundheit
open_access
Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie, Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie
OpenAIRE
Universität Würzburg
https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/files/16509/050_Meyer_FRONTIERS-IN-BEHAVIORAL-NEUROSCIENCE.pdf
11556
2014
eng
e105431
8
9
article
1
2015-07-11
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Hope for the Best or Prepare for the Worst? Towards a Spatial Cognitive Bias Test for Mice
Cognitive bias, the altered information processing resulting from the background emotional state of an individual, has been suggested as a promising new indicator of animal emotion. Comparable to anxious or depressed humans, animals in a putatively negative emotional state are more likely to judge an ambiguous stimulus as if it predicts a negative event, than those in positive states. The present study aimed to establish a cognitive bias test for mice based on a spatial judgment task and to apply it in a pilot study to serotonin transporter (5-HTT) knockout mice, a well-established mouse model for the study of anxiety- and depression-related behavior. In a first step, we validated that our setup can assess different expectations about the outcome of an ambiguous stimulus: mice having learned to expect something positive within a maze differed significantly in their behavior towards an unfamiliar location than animals having learned to expect something negative. In a second step, the use of spatial location as a discriminatory stimulus was confirmed by showing that mice interpret an ambiguous stimulus depending on its spatial location, with a position exactly midway between a positive and a negative reference point provoking the highest level of ambiguity. Finally, the anxiety- and depression-like phenotype of the 5-HTT knockout mouse model manifested - comparable to human conditions - in a trend for a negatively distorted interpretation of ambiguous information, albeit this effect was not statistically significant. The results suggest that the present cognitive bias test provides a useful basis to study the emotional state in mice, which may not only increase the translational value of animal models in the study of human affective disorders, but which is also a central objective of animal welfare research.
PLOS ONE
10.1371/journal.pone.0105431
25137069
urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-115569
PLoS ONE 9(8): e105431. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105431
Vanessa Kloke
Rebecca S. Schreiber
Carina Bodden
Julian Möllers
Hanna Ruhmann
Sylvia Kaiser
Klaus-Peter Lesch
Norbert Sachser
Lars Lewejohann
eng
uncontrolled
emotional information
eng
uncontrolled
serotonin transporter gene
eng
uncontrolled
attentional bias
eng
uncontrolled
laboratory environment
eng
uncontrolled
animal behavior
eng
uncontrolled
promoter region
eng
uncontrolled
deficient mice
eng
uncontrolled
affective state
eng
uncontrolled
knockout mice
eng
uncontrolled
judgement bias
Medizin und Gesundheit
open_access
Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie, Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie
Universität Würzburg
https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/files/11556/054_Kloke_PLOS_ONE.pdf
14372
2015
eng
47
9
article
1
2017-02-02
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Benefits of adversity?! How life history affects the behavioral profile of mice varying in serotonin transporter genotype
Behavioral profiles are influenced by both positive and negative experiences as well as the genetic disposition. Traditionally, accumulating adversity over lifetime is considered to predict increased anxiety like behavior ("allostatic load"). The alternative "mismatch hypothesis" suggests increased levels of anxiety if the early environment differs from the later-life environment. Thus, there is a need for a whole-life history approach to gain a deeper understanding of how behavioral profiles are shaped. The aim of this study was to elucidate the effects of life history on the behavioral profile of mice varying in serotonin transporter (5-HIT) genotype, an established mouse model of increased anxiety-like behavior. For this purpose, mice grew up under either adverse or beneficial conditions during early phases of life. In adulthood, they were further subdivided so as to face a situation that either matched or mismatched the condition experienced so far, resulting in four different life histories. Subsequently, mice were tested for their anxiety-like and exploratory behavior. The main results were: (1) Life history profoundly modulated the behavioral profile. Surprisingly, mice that experienced early beneficial and later escapable adverse conditions showed less anxiety-like and more exploratory behavior compared to mice of other life histories. (2) Genotype significantly influenced the behavioral profile, with homozygous 5-HTT knockout mice displaying highest levels of anxiety-like and lowest levels of exploratory behavior. Our findings concerning life history indicate that the absence of adversity does not necessarily cause lower levels of anxiety than accumulating adversity. Rather, some adversity may be beneficial, particularly when following positive events. Altogether, we conclude that for an understanding of behavioral profiles, it is not sufficient to look at experiences during single phases of life, but the whole life history has to be considered.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00047
urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-143723
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 9:47 (2015). DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00047
602805
CC BY: Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung 4.0 International
Carina Bodden
S. Helene Richter
Rebecca S. Schreiber
Vanessa Kloke
Joachim Gerß
Rupert Palme
Klaus-Peter Lesch
Lars Lewejohann
Sylvia Kaiser
Norbert Sachser
eng
uncontrolled
anxiety-like behavior
eng
uncontrolled
maternal care
eng
uncontrolled
dangerous world
eng
uncontrolled
animal behavior
eng
uncontrolled
match-mismatch
eng
uncontrolled
chronic social stress
eng
uncontrolled
elevated plus-maze
eng
uncontrolled
5-HTT
eng
uncontrolled
life history
eng
uncontrolled
predictive adaptive response hypothesis
eng
uncontrolled
developmental plasticity
eng
uncontrolled
knockout mice
eng
uncontrolled
environmental enrichment
eng
uncontrolled
allostatic load
Medizin und Gesundheit
open_access
Lehrstuhl für Molekulare Psychiatrie
OpenAIRE
Universität Würzburg
https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/files/14372/Bodden_Frontiers_in_Behavioural_Neuroscience.pdf