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Results for “Exploratory Behavior”

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At least 721 records · Page 40Linked to original sources

PubMed2005

Reduced locomotion in the serum and glucocorticoid inducible kinase 3 knock out mouse.

The serum and glucocorticoid inducible kinase isoform SGK3 is expressed in the brain including hippocampal neurons. It is activated by phosphoinositide-3 (PI3) kinase and thus a putative target of neurotrophic factors. In vitro experiments pointed to the ability of SGK3 to regulate several transporters and ion channels including the AMPA receptor GluR1. In order to explore the in vivo functional significance of SGK3 in the regulation of spatial learning and exploratory behavior, we assessed the performance of SGK3 knockout mice (SGK3-/-) and their wild type littermates (SGK3+/+) in a place navigation task in the water-maze, radial maze in a battery of forced and free exploration tests, acoustic startle and a test for motoric coordination. According to water-maze and radial maze testing reference and working memory was intact in SGK3-/- mice. However, detailed analysis of swimming patterns of SGK3-/- mice in the water-maze revealed a deficit in precision and goal-directed navigation in space. SGK3-/- mice showed reduced exploratory activity, which was observed in several environments and increased centre field avoidance in the open-field. SGK3-/- mice further showed reduced darting behavior on open surfaces, indicating that the knock out may modify basic patterns of locomotion. In conclusion, lack of SGK3 leads to subtle behavioral defects which may result from deranged neuronal regulation of transporters and ion channels.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1983

An electronic open field.

An electronic open field made with inexpensive, off-the-shelf materials is described. Its automatic operation frees the researcher from tedious and time consuming direct observations in experiments measuring exploratory behavior, goal preference, etc. Its numeric output can be read from the display or interfaced to printers, recorders, computers, etc. As an example of its operation, experimental results measuring sexual motivation (proceptivity) of female rats are reported.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Differential regulation of behavioral, genomic, and neuroendocrine responses by CRF infusions in rats.

Studies suggest that behavioral, genomic, and endocrine functions mediated by central corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF)-containing circuits may be differentially regulated. However, this hypothesis has never been tested directly by simultaneous assessment of distinct CRF-mediated responses within the same animal. The present study addressed this issue by concurrently examining the effects of central CRF infusions on anxiety responses, plasma corticosterone release, and c-fos mRNA induction within limbic brain circuits. Bilateral intracerebroventricular (icv) infusions of CRF (0.1-10 microg total) dose-dependently reduced exploratory behavior in a novel open field, increased circulating corticosterone (CORT) levels and augmented c-fos mRNA expression in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) and the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN). Plasma CORT levels increased significantly after 0.1 microg CRF, whereas behavioral and genomic responses required at least 1 microg CRF, suggesting that the distinct responses mediated by CRF are differentially regulated. Further characterization of intracerebroventricular CRF at 1 microg also demonstrated a disruption of social interaction behavior. The majority of behavioral effects and the elevated c-fos mRNA expression were attenuated by 10 mg/kg DMP696, a CRF(1) antagonist. However, plasma CORT elevation required 30 mg/kg DMP696 for attenuation. Thus, our studies demonstrate a greater sensitivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to intracerebroventricular CRF compared with the induction of innate fear-like responses and associated genomic changes.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗

PubMed1991

Behavioral, endocrine, and neurochemical effects of sulfomucopolysaccharide treatment in the aged Fischer 344 male rat.

1. Daily treatment of male 19- to 22-month-old Fischer 344 male rats with Ateroid (20 mg/kg/day, p.o.), beginning one month before and continuing throughout testing, resulted in a significant partial reversal of age-related deficits in: a) Conditioned one-way (spatial, unsignaled) avoidance acquisition and retention b) Conditioned two-way (nonspatial, signaled) avoidance acquisition. 2. Ateroid reversed the age-related reductions in nucleus accumbens DOPAC and HVA levels, but not the age-related decrease in neostriatal HVA content or concomitant increase in 5-HIAA levels. Reduced dopamine turnover in the nucleus accumbens may underlie, at least in part, age-related deficits in conditioned avoidance learning and retention. Thus, the behavioral effects of Ateroid observed in the present study may be due to its normalizing influence on dopamine neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens. 3. Stress-induced corticosterone secretion was greater in the old than in the young vehicle-treated rats. Ateroid treatment normalized this exacerbated corticosterone response to stress. 4. Daily Ateroid treatment did not affect any of the parameters measured in the young (5-8 months) F344 male rats. 5. Ateroid treatment did not affect the age-related reductions in exploratory behavior. The aged and young animals did not differ in their swimming ability. Thus, the effect of Ateroid on learning and memory processes does not appear to be due to an effect on locomotor or performance skills. 6. The age-related deficits in conditioned avoidance learning were not associated with abnormal basal (morning trough) plasma corticosterone levels, and Ateroid did not affect basal plasma corticosterone concentrations.

Aging↗

PubMed1981

Passive avoidance behavior: opposite effects of oxytocin analogs with agonist and antagonist properties.

Deamino-6-carba-oxytoxin (dC60), a potent oxytocin analog considered to be resistant to some of the physiologically significant enzymic systems, and N-alpha-acetyl-[2-O-methyltyrosine]oxytocin (AMTO), an analog acting as a competitive inhibitor of oxytocin on the rat uterus, were studied in rats trained in a passive avoidance task. Subcutaneous administration of dC60 (5-50 microgram . kg-1) during different phases of the passive avoidance learning paradigm attenuated avoidance latencies; the results indicated that the drug induced state-dependent learning. AMTO (5-20 microgram . kg-1) enhanced avoidance latencies when administered subcutaneously before training trials and/or before retention test trials. This effect occurred in both males and females. The analogs did not influence exploratory behavior in open field. The results suggest that oxytoxin, in contrast to vasopressin, may impair memory processes. However, both analogs failed to influence the passive avoidance response when administered after training. This finding indicates that dC60 and AMTO did not influence the mechanism of memory consolidation whereas vasopressin and oxytoxin had a marked effect.

Animals↗

PubMed1999

Preliminary evidence for an involvement of the cholinergic system in the sedative effects of rolipram in rats.

Rolipram is a specific cAMP phosphodiesterase type 4 (PDE4) inhibitor in the brain, which induces an increase in the intracellular levels of cAMP. Rolipram produces characteristic alterations in animal behavior, which have been suggested to be mediated mainly through an intracellular mechanism involving an increase in cAMP. However, specific mechanisms mediating the sedative effects of this compound have not yet been investigated. Because several lines of evidence indicate that the acetylcholine neural system may be involved in some effects of PDE4 inhibitors, the aim of this study was to elucidate whether the neurotransmitter acetylcholine is involved in the sedative effects induced by rolipram. The present study assessed the motor effects of rolipram in an exploratory behavioral test, the open field, in Wistar rats. The results show that rolipram (0.1-3.0 mg/kg SC) induced potent and dose-dependent hypoactivity, decreasing both locomotion and rearing. Physostigmine (0.03-0.3 mg/kg SC) potentiated a subeffective dose of rolipram (0.03 mg/kg SC), resulting in strong sedation, similar to that following higher doses of either rolipram or physostigmine alone, whereas the reduction in locomotor activity induced by rolipram (0.3 mg/kg SC) was completely reversed by scopolamine (0.03-0.3 mg/kg SC). These data provide preliminary evidence suggesting the involvement of the acetylcholinergic system in the sedative effects of rolipram.

Acetylcholine↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Locomotor and exploratory activity in three inbred strains of mice from young adulthood to senescence.

Nine variables measuring activity and exploratory behavior were collected for nine independent groups of three inbred strains of mice (BALB/c, C57BL/6, and DBA/2) at three ages (150, 400, and 750 days). An analysis of variance measuring differences of performances and a covariance analysis estimating the evolution of scores with age shows that (1) some variables are unaffected by age; (2) a strain-age interaction is observed for some variables; (3) some groups do not exhibit any age-related change for certain variables; and (4) the level of ability of age-related behavior varies across groups. These data argue for rejection of a general factor of aging and suggest that we are dealing with two distinct phenotypes: performance, and age-related modification of the performance, which therefore are not linked.

Aging↗

PubMed1996

Development of ultrasonic vocalization responses in genetically heterogeneous National Institute of Health (N:NIH) rats. II. Associations among variables and behaviors.

In this study, the first three generations of laboratory-reared, 10-day-old pups of the N:NIH strain were examined for ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) rates in response to 2 min of isolation. The purpose of the study was to determine baseline USV rates in these progenitor (PR1, PR2, PR3) generations prior to selective breeding for high and low rates of USV. In addition, this study aimed to detect sources of variation in USV between and within generations and sexes, and factors associated with USV during isolation across the generations. Data were collected from 532 10 day-old pups in 81 litters. Evaluation by principal component analyses revealed four factors corresponding roughly to constructs indicative of: thermoregulation; maturity and exploratory behavior; distress/anxiety, in which USV consistently appeared; and activity. Different component structures for each sex suggested that USV may represent different dimensions of anxiety for component structures for each sex suggested that USV may represent different dimensions of anxiety for the sexes, with some degree of overlap. Nonetheless, all variables measured during isolation testing accounted for only a small portion of the variance in individual pup USV (less than 9%) at 10 days of age, when the effects of intercorrelations among all variables were taken into account. This suggests that variables currently measured do not represent a comprehensive model for the control of USV.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Neonatal Semax and saline injections induce open-field behavior changes in mice of different genotypes].

DBA/2, CBA mice, and their F1 hybrids (first series) and 101/HY and C3H mice (second series) were injected as neonates (2-7 days of life) with Semax (sc., 7 microg per animal). Semax is a peptide analogue of ACHT4-10 fragment which is resistant to degradation. The common feature of remote effects of both Semax and saline injections was the set of changes in the open-field behavior in adult (2.5- to 3-month-old) animals as compared to intact mice. Unexpectedly, the neonatal saline injections induced many changes in adult behavior, part of these effects being genotype-dependent. The most conspicuous shifts (genotype-dependent increase or decline) in freezing, grooming and rearing scores were displayed by DBA/2 and C3H mice, whereas the hole-poke frequencies were significantly changed in CBA and C3H mice. Squares crossed in the center of arena and rearing number were significantly increased in saline group of DBA/2 mice, whereas in Semax-injected DBA/2 group they were approximately equal to the level of intact mice. This means that the remote effects of noxious stimulation (injections of saline) were in some ways "compensated" as the result of concomitant peptide effect. At the same time, the numbers of freezing and grooming episodes were also increased in these groups. Because exploratory behavior and manifestations of anxiety increased or decreased simultaneously, it proves to be difficult to ascribe these changes to behavioral modulation along the "novelty seeking--anxiety" axis. In mice of other genotypes, changes in the same indices of the open-field behavior were revealed, but these changes were different in their direction. It was suggested that the complex patterns of postnatal behavior was the result of neonatal injections modulating subsequent brain development.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗

PubMed1999

Peripheral stimulation of CCK-B receptors by BC264 induces a hyperexploration, dependent on the delta opioid system in the nucleus accumbens of rat.

This study analyses the influence of the CCKergic system on the enkephalinergic system in the exploratory behavior of rats, using both behavioral and biochemical approaches. The results show that the increase of the spontaneous alternation behavior induced by the selective CCKB agonist, BC264 (3 microg/kg) was not suppressed by the opioid antagonists, naloxone (100 microg/kg), or naltrindole (300 microg/kg). In contrast, BC264 injected at the same dose induced a hyperlocomotor activity measured in the open-field test, which was antagonized by the selective delta opioid antagonist, naltrindole. BC264 (3 microg/kg) significantly increased the extracellular levels of Met-LI in the anterior part of the nucleus accumbens. Furthermore, local injection of naltrindole (0.25 microg/0.5 microl) in the anterior nucleus accumbens completely suppressed the hyperlocomotion induced by BC264. The behavioral effects induced by BC264 cannot be explained by its interaction with gastrinic receptors mediating gastric acid release, since BC264 produced a long-lasting increase of gastric acid output from conscious gastric fistula rats only at doses 100 times higher than those inducing behavioral modifications. The hyperlocomotion obtained after stimulation by BC264 of probably peripheral CCKB receptors, indicates that this receptor type could participate in the transmission of information between the peripheral system and some regions of the CNS involved in motivations and emotions.

Animals↗

PubMed1988

Effect of some anesthetics on memory and exploration.

A light ether anesthesia in laboratory mice resulted in the complete drop of their memory retrieval to zero for more than three days after the administration. On the contrary, mice that underwent the exploration test after the light ether anesthesia performed as expected, confirming that impairment of memory does not necessarily reflect on exploratory performance. The effect of some anesthetic drugs was then studied on memory retrieval and exploratory behavior. Within this general framework, the anesthetics here studied all worsen memory retrieval, however without inducing clear and long-lasting amnesic effect comparable to that exerted by ether anesthesia. Contrarily, the classically amnesic drug scopolamine, orally administered, enhances memory retrieval and improves exploration.

Anesthetics↗

PubMed2003

Cellular and behavioral effects of D2 dopamine receptor hydrophobic eigenmode-targeted peptide ligands.

Patterns in G-protein-coupled receptors' hydrophobically transformed amino-acid sequences can be computationally characterized as hierarchies of autocorrelation waves, "hydrophobic eigenmodes", using autocovariance matrix decomposition and all poles power spectral and wavelet transformations. L- or D-amino acid (retro-inverso) 12-18 residue peptides targeting these modes can be designed using eigenvector templates derived from these computations. In all, 12 human long-form D(2) dopamine receptor eigenmode-targeted 15 mer peptides were designed, synthesized, and shown to modulate and/or indirectly activate the extracellular acidification response, EAR, in stably receptor-transfected CHO and LtK cells, with an 83% hit rate. Representative L- and D-amino-acid retro-inverso peptides injected bilaterally in the nucleus accumbens demonstrated changes in rat exploratory behavior and prepulse inhibition similar to those observed following parenteral amphetamine. In contrast with geometric models used for ligand design, such as pharmacophores, the hydrophobic eigenmode approach to lead modulatory peptide design targets hydrophobic eigenmode-bearing subsequences, including those not visible from X-ray and NMR studies such as extracellular segments and loops.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1975

Handling rabbits in infancy: in search of a critical period.

In Experiment 1 rabbits were handled for the first 10 days of life while controls were not disturbed. In Experiment 2 rabbits were handled on Days 11-20. In Experiment 3 rabbits were handled on Days 1-10, 11-20, 1-20, or were not handled. Starting at 31 days the animals were given an open-field test, a test for exploratory behavior toward novel stimuli, and a test of social behavior. The data were not consistent with the critical period concept. Instead, handling during the first and second 10-day intervals appears to be additive and to approximate the effects of 20 days of handling.

Animals↗

PubMed2001

Behavioral effects of the aqueous extract of Guiera senegalensis in mice and rats.

Behavioral effects of the aqueous extract of Guiera senegalensis on the central nervous system of mice and rats were investigated. Spontaneous motor activity, pentobarbital sleeping time, amphetamine-stereotyped behavior, exploratory activity and performance on treadmills (rota-rod) were evaluated. The results revealed that the aqueous extract of G. senegalensis reduced spontaneous motor activity in mice, prolonged the duration of pentobarbital sleeping time in rats and attenuated amphetamine-induced stereotype behavior in rats. The extract also decreased exploratory activity in mice and had no observable effects on motor coordination (rota-rod) at the doses tested. The results suggested that the crude aqueous extract of G. senegalensis possesses some biologically active principles that are sedative in nature.

Amphetamine↗

PubMed1991

A genetic-correlational study of hippocampal neurochemical variation and variation in exploratory activities of mice.

Previously, we have demonstrated that hippocampal mossy fibers, containing the opioid peptide dynorphin B, are functionally connected with the gene-dependent exploratory behavior of mice. In order to seek further evidence of causal relationships between dynorphin B action and exploration, a quantitative-genetic method was chosen. For this purpose, mice from the inbred strains C57BL/6, DBA/2, BLN, and CPB-K were used. By means of radioimmunoassay, the hippocampal level of dynorphin B was monitored in mice that had been exposed to environmental novelty, as compared to naive animals. Clear evidence was obtained that novelty induces the release of hippocampal dynorphin B. Furthermore, low tissue content was found to be causally connected with high exploratory scores.

Animals↗

PubMed1979

Vasopressin analogs: sedative properties and passive avoidance behavior in rats.

The effects of several types of vasopressin analogs that are considered to be resistant to some of the physiologically significant enzymatic systems were investigated utilizing rats trained in a passive avoidance task. Enhancement of avoidance latencies was observed 2, 7 and 13 days after the single learning trial when deamino-carbavasopressins, triglycyl-8-lysine-vasopressin or its des-glycinamide derivative, and deamino-D-arginine-vasopressin were given shortly after the learning trial in the dose of 1 microgram s.c. (8-L-Arginine)deamino-6-carba-vasopressin and (8-L-ornithine)deamino-6-carba-vasopressin were also active in the dose of 0.1 microgram. Lysine vasopressin and its des-glycinamide derivative failed to enhance avoidance latencies in part of the experiments if doses of 0.3--3 micrograms were administered and 7 or 13 day intervals were used between the learning and the test trials. Enhancement of avoidance latencies was also observed, if some of the peptides were injected 20 min but not 120 or 180 min before the test trial. Marked depression of exploratory behavior of rats in an open field was found after s.c. injections of low doses (1--3 micrograms kg-1) of deamino-carba-vasopressins. Higher doses (10--30 micrograms kg-1) induced sleep-like immobility not accompanied by ataxia or catalepsy.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

A secure base: responsive support of goal strivings and exploration in adult intimate relationships.

A theoretical framework is proposed for examining the interpersonal processes involved in the support of a relationship partner's goal strivings, personal growth, and exploratory behavior, and for examining consequences of receiving either responsive or unresponsive support in this domain. These processes were examined using both observational and experimental methods. In Phase 1, couples were videotaped as they discussed personal goals for the future. In Phase 2, support behavior was experimentally manipulated to examine immediate effects on the recipient. Results indicated that responsive (nonintrusive) support of a relationship partner's goal strivings and explorations have important implications for the recipient's happiness, self-esteem, and perceived likelihood of achieving specific goals. The importance of research examining this type of support is discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1976

Age, sex and genotype effects on stimulus exploration and locomotor activity in young mice.

Age and sex effects on stimulus exploration and locomotor activity were investigated in three genetic stocks of mice. Three measures of exploratory behavior and one measure of locomotor activity were recorded in an arena testing situation. The results showed that measures requiring locomotor activity are more affected by differences in age and sex than measures of stimulus exploration. The results are discussed in terms of the previously established genetic models of stimulus exploration and activity.

Age Factors↗