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Intact Female Mice Acquire Trace Eyeblink Conditioning Faster than Male and Ovariectomized Female Mice

Female subjects have been widely excluded from past neuroscience work because of a number of biases, including the notion that cycling sex hormones increase variability. However, it is necessary to conduct behavioral research in mice that includes both sexes as mice are typically used for developing...

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Autores principales: Rapp, Amy P., Weiss, Craig, Oh, M. Matthew, Disterhoft, John F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Society for Neuroscience 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7986530/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33531367
http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0199-20.2021
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author Rapp, Amy P.
Weiss, Craig
Oh, M. Matthew
Disterhoft, John F.
author_facet Rapp, Amy P.
Weiss, Craig
Oh, M. Matthew
Disterhoft, John F.
author_sort Rapp, Amy P.
collection PubMed
description Female subjects have been widely excluded from past neuroscience work because of a number of biases, including the notion that cycling sex hormones increase variability. However, it is necessary to conduct behavioral research in mice that includes both sexes as mice are typically used for developing and evaluating future therapeutics. Understanding sex differences in learning is fundamental for the development of targeted therapies for numerous neurologic and neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, which is more prevalent in females than males. This study set out to confirm the role of sex and necessity of circulating ovarian hormones in the acquisition of the temporal associative memory task trace eyeblink conditioning (tEBC) in C57BL/6J mice. We present evidence that sex and ovarian hormones are important factors in learning. Specifically, intact female mice learn significantly faster than both male and ovariectomized (ovx) female mice. Data from pseudoconditioned control mice indicate that sex differences are because of differences in learned associations, not sensitization or spontaneous blink rate. This study strengthens the idea that ovarian hormones such as estrogen and progesterone significantly influence learning and memory and that further research is needed to determine the underlying mechanisms behind their effects. Overall, our findings emphasize the necessity of including both sexes in future behavioral studies.
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spelling pubmed-79865302021-03-23 Intact Female Mice Acquire Trace Eyeblink Conditioning Faster than Male and Ovariectomized Female Mice Rapp, Amy P. Weiss, Craig Oh, M. Matthew Disterhoft, John F. eNeuro Research Article: Confirmation Female subjects have been widely excluded from past neuroscience work because of a number of biases, including the notion that cycling sex hormones increase variability. However, it is necessary to conduct behavioral research in mice that includes both sexes as mice are typically used for developing and evaluating future therapeutics. Understanding sex differences in learning is fundamental for the development of targeted therapies for numerous neurologic and neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, which is more prevalent in females than males. This study set out to confirm the role of sex and necessity of circulating ovarian hormones in the acquisition of the temporal associative memory task trace eyeblink conditioning (tEBC) in C57BL/6J mice. We present evidence that sex and ovarian hormones are important factors in learning. Specifically, intact female mice learn significantly faster than both male and ovariectomized (ovx) female mice. Data from pseudoconditioned control mice indicate that sex differences are because of differences in learned associations, not sensitization or spontaneous blink rate. This study strengthens the idea that ovarian hormones such as estrogen and progesterone significantly influence learning and memory and that further research is needed to determine the underlying mechanisms behind their effects. Overall, our findings emphasize the necessity of including both sexes in future behavioral studies. Society for Neuroscience 2021-03-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7986530/ /pubmed/33531367 http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0199-20.2021 Text en Copyright © 2021 Rapp et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
spellingShingle Research Article: Confirmation
Rapp, Amy P.
Weiss, Craig
Oh, M. Matthew
Disterhoft, John F.
Intact Female Mice Acquire Trace Eyeblink Conditioning Faster than Male and Ovariectomized Female Mice
title Intact Female Mice Acquire Trace Eyeblink Conditioning Faster than Male and Ovariectomized Female Mice
title_full Intact Female Mice Acquire Trace Eyeblink Conditioning Faster than Male and Ovariectomized Female Mice
title_fullStr Intact Female Mice Acquire Trace Eyeblink Conditioning Faster than Male and Ovariectomized Female Mice
title_full_unstemmed Intact Female Mice Acquire Trace Eyeblink Conditioning Faster than Male and Ovariectomized Female Mice
title_short Intact Female Mice Acquire Trace Eyeblink Conditioning Faster than Male and Ovariectomized Female Mice
title_sort intact female mice acquire trace eyeblink conditioning faster than male and ovariectomized female mice
topic Research Article: Confirmation
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7986530/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33531367
http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0199-20.2021
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