Lrp8 knockout mice fed a selenium-replete diet display subtle deficits in their spatial learning and memory function.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 138(2), Apr 2024, 125-141; doi:10.1037/bne0000585Selenium is an essential trace element that is delivered to the brain by the selenium transport protein selenoprotein P (SEPP1), primarily by binding to its receptor low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 8 (LRP8), also known as apolipoprotein E receptor 2 (ApoER2), at the blood–brain barrier. Selenium transport is required for several important brain functions, with transgenic deletion of either Sepp1 or Lrp8 resulting in severe neurological dysfunction and death in mice fed a selenium-deficient diet. Previous studies have reported t...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - April 25, 2024 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Indirect and direct cannabinoid agonists differentially affect mesolimbic dopamine release and related behaviors.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 138(2), Apr 2024, 108-124; doi:10.1037/bne0000582The cannabinoid system is being researched as a potential pharmaceutical target for a multitude of disorders. The present study examined the effect of indirect and direct cannabinoid agonists on mesolimbic dopamine release and related behaviors in C57BL/6J (B6) mice. The indirect cannabinoid agonist N-arachidonoyl serotonin (AA-5-HT) indirectly agonizes the cannabinoid system by preventing the metabolism of endocannabinoids through fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibition while also inhibiting transient receptor potential vanilloid Type 1 channels. ...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - April 25, 2024 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Less is more: Smaller hippocampal subfield volumes predict greater improvements in posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms over 2 years.
This study investigated whether the volume of the hippocampus and its subfields, particularly cornu ammonis (CA) 1, CA3, and dentate gyrus, are associated with current PTSD symptoms and whether they predict PTSD symptom changes over 2 years. We examined clinical and structural magnetic resonance imaging measures from 252 trauma-exposed post-9/11 veterans (159 with Time 1 PTSD diagnosis) during assessments approximately 2 years apart. Automated hippocampal subfield segmentation was performed with FreeSurfer Version 7.1, producing 19 bilateral subfields. PTSD symptoms were measured at each assessment using the Clinician-Admi...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - April 25, 2024 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Sex similarities and dopaminergic differences in interval timing.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 138(2), Apr 2024, 85-93; doi:10.1037/bne0000577Rodent behavioral studies have largely focused on male animals, which has limited the generalizability and conclusions of neuroscience research. Working with humans and rodents, we studied sex effects during interval timing that requires participants to estimate an interval of several seconds by making motor responses. Interval timing requires attention to the passage of time and working memory for temporal rules. We found no differences between human females and males in interval timing response times (timing accuracy) or the coefficient of varian...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - April 25, 2024 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Psilocybe cubensis extract potently prevents fear memory recall and freezing behavior in short- but not long-term in a rat model of posttraumatic stress disorder.
In conclusion, Psilocybe cubensis effects on PTSD-like behavior and locomotor activity seem to be remained in short-term, while Psilocybe cubensis effects on pain subthreshold and anxiety remained long-term. This is the first study evaluating the effect of Psilocybe cubensis on PTSD-like behavior in rats in three different time protocols (1, 3, and 21 days after fear conditioning). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Behavioral Neuroscience)
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - January 18, 2024 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Morphine exposure during adolescence induces enduring social changes dependent on adolescent stage of exposure, sex, and social test.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 138(1), Feb 2024, 59-71; doi:10.1037/bne0000567Drug exposure during adolescence, when the “reward” circuitry of the brain is developing, can permanently impact reward-related behavior into adulthood. Epidemiological studies show that opioid treatment during adolescence, such as pain management for a dental procedure or surgery, increases the incidence of psychiatric illness including substance use disorders. Moreover, the opioid epidemic currently in the United States is affecting younger individuals raising the impetus to understand the pathogenesis of the negative effects of opioids. One ...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - December 21, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Predictions about reward outcomes in rhesus monkeys.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 138(1), Feb 2024, 43-58; doi:10.1037/bne0000573Human infants and nonhuman animals respond to surprising events by looking longer at unexpected than expected situations. These looking responses provide core cognitive evidence that nonverbal minds make predictions about possible outcomes and detect when these predictions fail to match reality. We propose that this phenomenon has crucial parallels with the processes of reward prediction error, indexing the difference between expected and actual reward outcomes. Most work on reward prediction errors to date involves neurobiological techniques that ...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - December 7, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Negative attributes of mixed-valence memories strengthen over long retention intervals and the degree of enhancement is predicted by individual differences in state anxiety.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 137(6), Dec 2023, 380-391; doi:10.1037/bne0000575Memories are multifaceted and can simultaneously contain positive and negative attributes. Here, we report that negative attributes of a mixed-valence memory dominate long-term recall. To induce a mixed-valence memory, running responses were randomly reinforced with either food (∼83% of trials) or footshock (∼17% of trials), or a noise conditioned stimulus (CS) was followed randomly with either food (∼80% of trials) or footshock (∼20% of trials). Control animals were consistently reinforced with only food. Mixed-valence training promoted ...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - October 30, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Are reactions to frustrative nonreward in other animals a model for human anger? Neurobehavioral implications and therapeutic applications.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 137(6), Dec 2023, 364-372; doi:10.1037/bne0000574Anger is a powerful and mostly deleterious emotion that can impair an individual’s health and social relationships and that imposes considerable costs on society at large. It is a constituent of multiple psychopathologies, most notably intermittent explosive disorder. Excessive anger can drive injurious and even lethal reactive aggression. To understand its biobehavioral origins and develop appropriate therapeutic interventions, an animal model of human anger would be quite useful. The phenomena of aggression provoked by frustrative nonreward (...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - October 30, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Retrieval and savings of contextual fear memories across an extended retention interval in juvenile and adult male and female rats.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 137(6), Dec 2023, 339-346; doi:10.1037/bne0000569Adult rodents exhibit an exceptional ability to retrieve context fear memories across lengthy retention intervals. In contrast, these memories established in younger rodents are susceptible to significant forgetting. The present study aimed to examine the persistence of contextual fear memories established in juvenile and adult Long-Evans male and female rats. Testing 1-day after conditioning, adult males exhibited evidence for greater conditioning than juvenile males, while in females, conditioning did not differ between juvenile and adult rats....
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - October 30, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Prelimbic cortex inactivation prevents ABA renewal based on stress state.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 137(6), Dec 2023, 373-379; doi:10.1037/bne0000570Our recent research suggests that the interoceptive state associated with stress can function as a contextual stimulus for operant behavior. In the present experiment, we investigated the role of the rodent prelimbic cortex (PL), a brain region that is critical in contextual control of operant behavior, in the ability of a stressed state to produce ABA renewal of an extinguished operant response. Rats were trained to perform a lever press response for a food pellet reward during daily sessions that followed exposure to a stressor that changed eac...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - October 12, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Can the resting state peak alpha frequency explain the relationship between temporal resolution power and psychometric intelligence?
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 138(1), Feb 2024, 15-29; doi:10.1037/bne0000571The temporal resolution power (TRP) hypothesis states that individuals with higher TRP, as reflected by a higher performance on several psychophysical timing tasks, perform better on intelligence tests due to their ability to process information faster and coordinate their mental operations more effectively. It is proposed that these differences in TRP are related to the rate of a master clock based on neural oscillations. The present study aimed to investigate whether the peak alpha frequency (PAF) measured via electroencephalography (EEG) reflect...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - October 5, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Optogenetic inhibition of the caudal substantia nigra inflates behavioral responding to uncertain threat and safety.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 137(6), Dec 2023, 347-355; doi:10.1037/bne0000568Defensive responding is adaptive when it approximates the current threat but maladaptive when it exceeds the current threat. Here we asked if the substantia nigra, a region consistently implicated in reward, is necessary to show appropriate levels of defensive responding in Pavlovian fear discrimination. Rats received bilateral transduction of the caudal substantia nigra with halorhodopsin or a control fluorophore and bilateral ferrule implants. Rats then behaviorally discriminated cues predicting unique foot shock probabilities (danger, p = 1; u...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - October 5, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Kamin blocking is disrupted by low-dose ketamine in mice: Further implications for aberrant stimulus processing in schizophrenia.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 138(1), Feb 2024, 30-42; doi:10.1037/bne0000572Previous studies have shown that low doses of ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, produce aberrantly strong internal representations of associatively activated but absent stimuli in humans and nonhuman animals, suggesting the validity of ketamine treatment as a preclinical model of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, including hallucinations and delusions. However, whether acute ketamine treatment also impairs the ability to ignore present but informationally redundant stimuli, which is another hallmark of schizophrenia, rema...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - September 28, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Electric barrier-induced voluntary abstinence reduces alcohol seeking in male, but not female, iP rats.
This study investigated relapse-like behavior to alcohol seeking following acute, forced, and voluntary abstinence. Male rats had increased operant self-administration responding throughout training compared to females; however, females consumed greater amounts of alcohol in g/kg. Both male and female rats achieved voluntary abstinence, which was induced using an electric barrier on the operant chamber floor with alcohol readily available during this period. Interestingly, male rats that underwent voluntary abstinence displayed reduced alcohol seeking compared to males in the acute and forced abstinence groups. This differ...
Source: Behavioral Neuroscience - August 17, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
