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At least 721 records · Page 40Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Chronic dietary choline enrichment affects DRL responding of old, but not of adult CPBB rats.

Using adult (11-month-old) and aged (22-month-old) inbred female CPBB rats, we tested the hypothesis that chronic dietary choline supplementation affects timing behavior. The rats had received choline chloride in their tap water for about 9 months before they acquired responding on a differential reinforcement of low-rate schedule with a critical delay of 8 s (DRL-8"). One retention session and two extinction sessions were given 4 weeks after the end of acquisition. The treatment had no effect on the timing behavior of the adult rats. Choline-treated old animals made more perservation errors, i.e., responses with interresponse times (IRTs) < 2 s, than the untreated old control rats. Even after correction for burst responses, the frequency of short IRTs was higher in the treated than in the control group, indicating that choline supplementation slightly impaired timing behavior. The mechanisms underlying the action of supplemented choline are still unknown.

Aging↗
PubMed2005

Dopamine in disturbances of food and drug motivated behavior: a case of homology?

Highly palatable food and drugs of abuse share the ability to stimulate dopamine transmission in the shell of the nucleus accumbens. However, while in the case of food this property is adaptively regulated in a negative fashion upon repeated exposure to the reward, no such regulation is operative towards drugs of abuse. Dysadaptive stimulation of dopamine transmission in the accumbens shell is assigned an important role in the compulsive motivation for drugs typical of drug addiction. It is speculated that disturbances of feeding behavior are related to loss of adaptive regulation of food-stimulated release of dopamine in the shell of the accumbens.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

The effects of lateral, medial, or complete septal lesions on positive conditioned suppression in rats.

This study investigated the effects of lateral, medial, or complete septal lesions in rats on lever pressing and US-approach behaviors during the presentation of a light followed by two free food pellets. Ten days after surgery, groups of rats received 20 sessions of a random interval (RI) 60-s schedule of food reinforcement. The positive conditioned suppression paradigm consisted of 20 sessions of a 10-s light paired with free food while the rats were responding on the RI 60-s schedule. All groups of rats significantly suppressed lever pressing during the 10-s light presentation. During the last four sessions of the 10-s light condition, rats with lateral septal lesions had a significant increase in food-tray entries during the light presentation, while the other groups decreased lever pressing without a change in food-tray entries during the 10-s light presentation. Although rats with septal damage generally have difficulty inhibiting responses in a variety of operant situations, rats with lateral, medial, or complete septal lesions showed no impairment in positive conditioned suppression. This study also suggests that when the spatial arrangement of the CS and the type of US were manipulated to minimize sign-tracking and goal-tracking behaviors, emotional reactions during the presentation of the CS must be considered a factor influencing positive conditioned suppression.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Psychological stress impairs spatial working memory: relevance to electrophysiological studies of hippocampal function.

Stress blocks hippocampal primed-burst potentiation, a low threshold form of long-term potentiation, thereby suggesting that stress should also impair hippocampal-dependent memory. Therefore, the effects of stress on working (hippocampal-dependent) and reference (hippocampal-independent) memory were evaluated. Rats foraged for food in seven arms of a 14-arm radial maze. After they ate the food in four of the seven baited arms, they were placed in an unfamiliar environment (stress) for a 4-hr delay. At the end of the delay they were returned to the maze to locate the food in the 3 remaining baited arms. Stress impaired only working memory. Stress interfered with the retrieval of previously stored information (retrograde amnesia), but did not produce anterograde amnesia. Stress appears to induce a transient disruption of hippocampal function, which is revealed behaviorally as retrograde amnesia and physiologically as a blockade of synaptic plasticity.

Amnesia, Retrograde↗
PubMed1997

Assessment of sensorimotor neglect after occlusion of the middle cerebral artery in the rat.

Evaluating the efficacy of neuroprotective drugs in rat models of focal cerebral ischemia has involved histological and behavioral batteries to examine treatment outcome. However, the behavioral tests used to date provide little insight into the nature of the neurological impairments. To provide an analysis of a possible "neglect" syndrome after occlusion of the middle cerebral artery, M. I. Posner's (1980) visual attentional paradigm was adapted for use in the rat. A paw-reaching task and a test of somatosensory "neglect" also were used to assess forelimb sensorimotor function. The lesion group displayed unilateral deficits; however, there was no evidence of attentional dysfunction. Results are consistent with the conclusion that the behavioral deficits identified arise from a somatosensory deficit rather than hemineglect due to dysfunctional spatial attention.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Activity patterns in rats (Rattus norvegicus) as a function of the cost of access to four resources.

Patterns of eating, drinking, wheel running, and nesting were recorded in 2 experiments in which rats (Rattus norvegicus) lived in a laboratory environment that provided food, water, a running wheel, and a nest box. Access to each resource was contingent on the completion of a fixed ratio of bar presses and once earned remained available until the resource was not used for 10 consecutive min. In all cases an increase in the access price of a resource produced a decrease in the frequency with which the resource was accessed. This reduction in bout frequency was countered by an increase in bout size, which was compensatory for eating and nearly so for drinking, but which was only partially compensatory for wheel running. Nest bout size did not change significantly as nest price increased. The bout patterns of these 4 activities changed independently of one another, and the probabilities of behavioral transitions did not indicate strong links between any pairs of activities.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Temporal aspects of female musk shrew (Suncus murinus) sexual behavior.

The effects of testing condition on sexual behavior were examined in female musk shrews (Suncus murinus). Females were tested in 2 conditions, a pair test and a paced test. The pair test was similar to traditional sex test conditions in which the female and male are placed into the same chamber together until mating occurs. The paced condition allowed the female to leave the male's chamber and revisit him at will, thus "pacing" the interaction. Females displayed receptivity continuously for 14 days in both conditions. In the paced condition, females were less likely to become receptive within 30 min and mate to ejaculation. However, few additional differences were found between test conditions. Because this is the 1st experiment to use a pacing test paradigm in a species with induced ovulation, the authors speculate that the absence of pacing behavior during mating may be shown by other species that have induced ovulation.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Hypergravity and aging in Drosophila melanogaster. 8. Proboscis-extension-response threshold to sucrose.

The proboscis extension response threshold to sucrose has been measured in young, middle-aged and old male Drosophila melanogaster flies living at a gravity level of 1, 3.02 or 5.02 g until the experiment. The threshold increased with age and no effect of gravity level was observed at any age. These data are at variance with those of previously studied behavioral traits which showed that flies living in hypergravity seemed to age faster than 1-g ones.

Aging↗
PubMed2004

Chemical and visual communication during mate searching in rock shrimp.

Mate searching in crustaceans depends on different communicational cues, of which chemical and visual cues are most important. Herein we examined the role of chemical and visual communication during mate searching and assessment in the rock shrimp Rhynchocinetes typus. Adult male rock shrimp experience major ontogenetic changes. The terminal molt stages (named "robustus") are dominant and capable of monopolizing females during the mating process. Previous studies had shown that most females preferably mate with robustus males, but how these dominant males and receptive females find each other is uncertain, and is the question we examined herein. In a Y-maze designed to test for the importance of waterborne chemical cues, we observed that females approached the robustus male significantly more often than the typus male. Robustus males, however, were unable to locate receptive females via chemical signals. Using an experimental set-up that allowed testing for the importance of visual cues, we demonstrated that receptive females do not use visual cues to select robustus males, but robustus males use visual cues to find receptive females. Visual cues used by the robustus males were the tumults created by agitated aggregations of subordinate typus males around the receptive females. These results indicate a strong link between sexual communication and the mating system of rock shrimp in which dominant males monopolize receptive females. We found that females and males use different (sex-specific) communicational cues during mate searching and assessment, and that the sexual communication of rock shrimp is similar to that of the American lobster, where females are first attracted to the dominant males by chemical cues emitted by these males. A brief comparison between these two species shows that female behaviors during sexual communication contribute strongly to the outcome of mate searching and assessment.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2000

Possible involvement of orexin in the stress reaction in rats.

We examined whether corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) was involved in orexin-induced grooming and face-washing behaviors, and whether orexin was involved in the stress reaction. Administration of alpha-helical CRF, CRF antagonist, alone had no behavioral effect, but it blocked the orexin-induced grooming and face-washing behaviors in rats. The level of corticosterone increased in a dose-dependent manner 15 min after icv injection of orexin, and it remained high for at least 60 min. In 2-month-old rats, 1 h of immobilization stress increased orexin mRNA levels, but not the melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) mRNA, in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA). In 6-month-old rats, 30 min of cold stress increased the expression of orexin mRNA in the LHA. Unlike in the 2-month-old rats, immobilization stress did not change orexin mRNA expression in 6-month-old rats. These results suggest that CRF is involved in orexin-induced behaviors, and that orexin may play an important role in some stress reactions.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

A possible role of hippocampal dysfunction in schizophrenic symptomatology.

The author proposes a pathogenesis for the bizarre, repetitive behaviors frequently seen in deteriorated schizophrenics, i.e., polydipsia, hoarding, pacing, etc. It is argued that such behaviors may have a neurobiology similar to schedule-induced behaviors or incentive-conditioned behaviors described in animal models, which involve the hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, and the neurotransmitter dopamine. Such behaviors are augmented by hippocampal lesions, stress, increased drive state, or dopaminergic agents, and reduced by 6-OH dopamine lesions to nucleus accumbens or antipsychotic agents. These repetitive behaviors may reflect the failure of hippocampus to modulate the impact of mesolimbic dopaminergic activity on the nucleus accumbens and thus on motor behavior. Such a hypothesis is consistent with a growing body of neuropathological and brain imaging results demonstrating hippocampal lesions in chronic schizophrenics.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Cognitive deficits induced in young rats by long-term corticosterone administration.

Corticosterone slow-release pellets, implanted for 9 weeks in young Fischer 344 rats, resulted in continuous high plasma levels of the hormone which are comparable to those of rats under mild stress. One week following termination of the drug treatment, the rats were tested in an eight-arm radial maze. During the initial acquisition stages, corticosterone-treated rats exhibited cognitive impairments in contrast to placebo-treated rats. The deficits were observed in all three parameters which were monitored, the total number of errors, the number of correct entries out of the first eight, and the total time needed to complete the test. This study is the first to report specific behavioral decrements related to the previously observed morphological hippocampal changes induced by long-term corticosterone administration.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Food-caching in timber wolves, and the question of rules of action syntax.

This report presents data on the sequence of motor operations used by captive timber wolves to cache food. Videotapes were obtained of 151 caching episodes by 8 wolves. The vast majority of these episodes contained 3 distinct phases, each composed of movements unique to that phase. The excavation of the cache site was always done with the forefeet, and burying of the food was always done with the snout. Both the identity of the movements, and the serial order of phases were independent of the sex of the animal, the season in which the observations were made, and the nature of the substrate. A comparison of the temporal sequencing of these actions with the temporal stereotypy seen in rodent motor patterns (e.g. grooming) revealed a striking phenomenological similarity. The factors shaping the temporal sequencing in the two behaviors are, however, probably very different. This is because much, though not all, of the temporal stereotypy in the sequence of movements used by the wolf in caching is constrained by the logistics of the cache operation, while this is not the case for the phases of facial grooming in rodents. The implications of our data for the kinds of behavioral evidence required for ascription of such stereotypy to a central pattern generator are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Vocal production in different social contexts relates to variation in immediate early gene immunoreactivity within and outside of the song control system.

In songbirds, a major function of song during the breeding season is mate attraction, and song in this context can be highly sexually motivated. Vocal learning, perception, and production are regulated by the song control system, but there is no evidence that this system participates in the motivation to sing. Instead, brain regions involved in sexual motivation and arousal, including the medial preoptic nucleus (POM), bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), nucleus taeniae (Tn), and area ventralis of Tsai (AVT) might regulate the motivation to sing, at least in a sexual context. The role of these nuclei and song control nuclei (area X and HVC) in vocal production within a breeding context, and other courtship behaviors, was investigated using immunocytochemistry for protein products of immediate early genes (IEGs), ZENK and c-fos (Fos), in flocks of male house sparrows (Passer domesticus) presented with females. Compared to vocalizations from other perches, vocal behavior from a nest box is more likely directed toward females, and sexually motivated. The numbers of ZENK and Fos labeled cells within rostral, but not caudal POM related positively only to vocalizations produced from a nest box. In contrast, the number of ZENK-labeled cells within area X related negatively to vocalizations from a nest box. Additionally, numbers of IEG-labeled cells within rPOM, Tn and AVT related positively to mount attempts. The results support the hypothesis that the POM interacts with the song control system to regulate sexually motivated vocal expression, and are consistent with work indicating that (a) rostral and caudal POM play distinct roles in sexual behavior, and (b) involvement of area X in song is context specific.

Amygdala↗
PubMed1992

Blood ethanol concentration from early postnatal exposure: effects on memory-based learning and hippocampal neuroanatomy in infant and adult rats.

Early postnatal exposure to ethanol (EtOH) that results in daily high-peak blood ethanol concentration (BEC) retarded the acquisition of single-patterned alteration (PA), a kind of memory-based discrimination learning, and was related to reduced brain weight, hippocampal cell number, and CA1 area in infant rats. These behavioral and neuroanatomical effects survived into young adulthood. On the PA discrimination, in both pups and young adults, postnatal exposure to high-peak EtOH condition, in relation to low-peak and control conditions, impaired the acquisition of PA at 60-s but not at 30-s intertrial intervals. These results provide further evidence of hippocampal involvement in intermediate-term memory and indicate that early postnatal EtOH is a behavioral and neuroanatomical teratogen, particularly when the BEC is relatively high.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1991

The effects of schedule history and the opportunity for adjunctive responding on behavior during a fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement.

The effects of schedule history and the availability of an adjunctive response (polydipsia) on fixed-interval schedule performance were investigated. Two rats first pressed levers under a schedule of food reinforcement with an interresponse time greater than 11 s, and 2 others responded under a fixed-ratio 40 schedule. All 4 were then exposed to a fixed-interval 15-s schedule. Water was continuously available under these conditions, but after responding became stable on the fixed-interval schedule, access was experimentally manipulated. With water freely available, subjects did not display characteristic fixed-interval response rates and patterns (i.e., scalloping or break-and-run). Instead, they exhibited predictable, stable patterns of behavior as a function of their schedule histories: Subjects with the interresponse-time history exhibited low response rates, and those with the fixed-ratio history exhibited high rates. Manipulating the amount of water available resulted in marked changes in response rates for rats with the interresponse-time history but not for those with the fixed-ratio history. The results illustrate the multiple causation of behavior by its previous and current schedules of reinforcement and other concurrent factors.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Neurochemical changes correlated with behavior maintained under fixed-interval and fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement.

Key pecking of 4 pigeons was maintained under a multiple 3-min fixed-interval, 30-response fixed-ratio schedule of food presentation. Only one schedule was in effect during an experimental session, and each was correlated with a different keylight stimulus and location (left vs. right). The different schedule components alternated across days or weeks. Cerebrospinal fluid was collected from chronically implanted intracerebroventricular cannulae following sessions with the different schedules, as well as following sessions in which reinforcement was withheld (extinction), when response-independent food was delivered, and when the experimental chamber was dark and there were no scheduled events. Metabolites of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine were assayed in cerebrospinal fluid using high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Compared to the fixed-ratio condition, responding maintained under the fixed-interval schedule resulted in consistently higher levels of the serotonin metabolite 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid and of the dopamine metabolite homovanillic acid in all pigeons. Levels of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylethylene glycol, a metabolite of norepinephrine, and dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, another dopamine metabolite, were also higher in 3 of the 4 pigeons following exposure to the fixed-interval schedules when compared to levels of these metabolites after exposure to the fixed-ratio schedule. Extinction of fixed-ratio responding resulted in large increases in 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid compared to levels of this metabolite under the fixed-ratio schedule, whereas this serotonin metabolite decreased during extinction of responding under the fixed-interval schedule. Control procedures suggested that the neurochemical changes were not related to the rate of responding but were a function of the specific experimental conditions. Distinctive neurochemical changes that accompany schedule-controlled responding show the sensitivity of the neurochemical environment to behavioral contingencies and demonstrate further the profound impact that such contingencies have on biobehavioral processes.

3,4-Dihydroxyphenylacetic Acid↗
PubMed1992

MK-801 prevents brain lesions and delayed-nonmatching-to-sample deficits produced by pyrithiamine-induced encephalopathy in rats.

Rats were trained on a spatial delayed-nonmatching-to-sample (DNMTS) task and assigned by block randomization to one of four treatments: pyrithiamine-induced thiamine deficiency (PTD), PTD with administration of MK-801 after 12 days, control with MK-801 treatment, and control without MK-801. After 15 days of treatment followed by 21 days of recovery, the PTD rats showed significant deficits for DNMTS accuracy at retention intervals (RI) that ranged from 3.0 s to 15.0 s, the RIs that produced 75% accuracy on DNMTS in staircase training, and the rate at which a novel radial arm maze task was learned. The PTD-treated rats had consistent lesions in the thalamus and the mammillary bodies. MK-801 protected rats from both behavioral deficits and brain lesions (assessed quantitatively and qualitatively) that were produced by the PTD treatment.

Alcohol Amnestic Disorder↗