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The Female Encounter Test: A Novel Method for Evaluating Reward-Seeking Behavior or Motivation in Mice

BACKGROUND: Reduced motivation is an important marker of psychiatric disorders, including depression. We describe the female encounter test, a novel method of evaluating reward-seeking behavior in mice. METHODS: The test apparatus consists of three open chambers, formed with partitions that allow th...

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Autores principales: Ago, Yukio, Hasebe, Shigeru, Nishiyama, Saki, Oka, Satoshi, Onaka, Yusuke, Hashimoto, Hitoshi, Takuma, Kazuhiro, Matsuda, Toshio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4756727/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26025781
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijnp/pyv062
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author Ago, Yukio
Hasebe, Shigeru
Nishiyama, Saki
Oka, Satoshi
Onaka, Yusuke
Hashimoto, Hitoshi
Takuma, Kazuhiro
Matsuda, Toshio
author_facet Ago, Yukio
Hasebe, Shigeru
Nishiyama, Saki
Oka, Satoshi
Onaka, Yusuke
Hashimoto, Hitoshi
Takuma, Kazuhiro
Matsuda, Toshio
author_sort Ago, Yukio
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Reduced motivation is an important marker of psychiatric disorders, including depression. We describe the female encounter test, a novel method of evaluating reward-seeking behavior in mice. METHODS: The test apparatus consists of three open chambers, formed with partitions that allow the animal to move freely from one chamber to another. A test male mouse is habituated in the apparatus, and subsequently a female and male mouse are introduced into a wire-mesh box in the left and right chamber, respectively. The time the test male mouse spends in the female or male area is measured for 10min. RESULTS: All six strains of mice tested showed a significant preference for female encounters. The preference was observed in 7–30-week-old mice. The preference was blocked by castration of the resident male test mouse, and was not affected by the phase of the menstrual cycle of the female intruder. The preference was impaired in mouse models of depression, including social isolation-reared, corticosterone-treated, and lipopolysaccharide-treated mice. The impairment was alleviated by fluvoxamine in isolation-reared and lipopolysaccharide-treated mice, and it was improved by the metabotropic glutamate 2/3 receptor antagonist LY341495 in corticosterone-treated mice. Encounter with a female, but not male, mouse increased c-Fos expression in the nucleus accumbens shell of test male mice. Furthermore, both the preference and encounter-induced increases in c-Fos expression were blocked by dopamine D(1) and D(2) receptor antagonists. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that motivation in adult male mice can be easily evaluated by quantitating female encounters.
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spelling pubmed-47567272016-02-17 The Female Encounter Test: A Novel Method for Evaluating Reward-Seeking Behavior or Motivation in Mice Ago, Yukio Hasebe, Shigeru Nishiyama, Saki Oka, Satoshi Onaka, Yusuke Hashimoto, Hitoshi Takuma, Kazuhiro Matsuda, Toshio Int J Neuropsychopharmacol Research Article BACKGROUND: Reduced motivation is an important marker of psychiatric disorders, including depression. We describe the female encounter test, a novel method of evaluating reward-seeking behavior in mice. METHODS: The test apparatus consists of three open chambers, formed with partitions that allow the animal to move freely from one chamber to another. A test male mouse is habituated in the apparatus, and subsequently a female and male mouse are introduced into a wire-mesh box in the left and right chamber, respectively. The time the test male mouse spends in the female or male area is measured for 10min. RESULTS: All six strains of mice tested showed a significant preference for female encounters. The preference was observed in 7–30-week-old mice. The preference was blocked by castration of the resident male test mouse, and was not affected by the phase of the menstrual cycle of the female intruder. The preference was impaired in mouse models of depression, including social isolation-reared, corticosterone-treated, and lipopolysaccharide-treated mice. The impairment was alleviated by fluvoxamine in isolation-reared and lipopolysaccharide-treated mice, and it was improved by the metabotropic glutamate 2/3 receptor antagonist LY341495 in corticosterone-treated mice. Encounter with a female, but not male, mouse increased c-Fos expression in the nucleus accumbens shell of test male mice. Furthermore, both the preference and encounter-induced increases in c-Fos expression were blocked by dopamine D(1) and D(2) receptor antagonists. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that motivation in adult male mice can be easily evaluated by quantitating female encounters. Oxford University Press 2015-05-29 /pmc/articles/PMC4756727/ /pubmed/26025781 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijnp/pyv062 Text en © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of CINP. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Research Article
Ago, Yukio
Hasebe, Shigeru
Nishiyama, Saki
Oka, Satoshi
Onaka, Yusuke
Hashimoto, Hitoshi
Takuma, Kazuhiro
Matsuda, Toshio
The Female Encounter Test: A Novel Method for Evaluating Reward-Seeking Behavior or Motivation in Mice
title The Female Encounter Test: A Novel Method for Evaluating Reward-Seeking Behavior or Motivation in Mice
title_full The Female Encounter Test: A Novel Method for Evaluating Reward-Seeking Behavior or Motivation in Mice
title_fullStr The Female Encounter Test: A Novel Method for Evaluating Reward-Seeking Behavior or Motivation in Mice
title_full_unstemmed The Female Encounter Test: A Novel Method for Evaluating Reward-Seeking Behavior or Motivation in Mice
title_short The Female Encounter Test: A Novel Method for Evaluating Reward-Seeking Behavior or Motivation in Mice
title_sort female encounter test: a novel method for evaluating reward-seeking behavior or motivation in mice
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4756727/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26025781
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijnp/pyv062
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