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Behavioral and Thermoregulatory Responses to Changes in Ambient Temperature and Wheel Running Availability in Octodon degus

Octodon degus is primarily a diurnal species, however, in laboratory conditions, it can switch from diurnal to nocturnal in response to wheel running availability. It has been proposed that this activity inversion obeys thermoregulatory constraints induced by vigorous physical exercise. Thus, its ac...

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Autores principales: Bano-Otalora, Beatriz, Rol, Maria Angeles, Madrid, Juan Antonio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8278234/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34276317
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2021.684988
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author Bano-Otalora, Beatriz
Rol, Maria Angeles
Madrid, Juan Antonio
author_facet Bano-Otalora, Beatriz
Rol, Maria Angeles
Madrid, Juan Antonio
author_sort Bano-Otalora, Beatriz
collection PubMed
description Octodon degus is primarily a diurnal species, however, in laboratory conditions, it can switch from diurnal to nocturnal in response to wheel running availability. It has been proposed that this activity inversion obeys thermoregulatory constraints induced by vigorous physical exercise. Thus, its activity shifts to the night as the ambient temperature is lower.Here, we investigate the relationship between thermoregulation and the activity phase-inversion in response to wheel-running in this species. We measured behavioral activity and body temperature rhythms in diurnal naïve animals under 12 h light: 12 h dark cycles at four different ambient temperatures (spanning from ~26°C to 32°C), and following access to running wheels while maintained under high ambient temperature.Our results show that naïve degus do not shift their diurnal activity and body temperature rhythms to a nocturnal phase when subjected to sequential increases in ambient temperature. However, when they were provided with wheels under constant high-temperature conditions, all animals inverted their diurnal phase preference becoming nocturnal. Both, negative masking by light and entrainment to the dark phase appeared involved in the nocturnalism of these animals. Analysis of the thermoregulatory response to wheel running revealed some differences between masked and entrained nocturnal chronotypes.These data highlight the importance of the coupling between wheel running availability and ambient temperature in the nocturnalism of the degus. The results support the view that an innate “protective” pre-program mechanism (associating darkness and lower ambient temperature) may change the timing of behavioral activity in this species to reduce the potential risk of hyperthermia.
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spelling pubmed-82782342021-07-15 Behavioral and Thermoregulatory Responses to Changes in Ambient Temperature and Wheel Running Availability in Octodon degus Bano-Otalora, Beatriz Rol, Maria Angeles Madrid, Juan Antonio Front Integr Neurosci Neuroscience Octodon degus is primarily a diurnal species, however, in laboratory conditions, it can switch from diurnal to nocturnal in response to wheel running availability. It has been proposed that this activity inversion obeys thermoregulatory constraints induced by vigorous physical exercise. Thus, its activity shifts to the night as the ambient temperature is lower.Here, we investigate the relationship between thermoregulation and the activity phase-inversion in response to wheel-running in this species. We measured behavioral activity and body temperature rhythms in diurnal naïve animals under 12 h light: 12 h dark cycles at four different ambient temperatures (spanning from ~26°C to 32°C), and following access to running wheels while maintained under high ambient temperature.Our results show that naïve degus do not shift their diurnal activity and body temperature rhythms to a nocturnal phase when subjected to sequential increases in ambient temperature. However, when they were provided with wheels under constant high-temperature conditions, all animals inverted their diurnal phase preference becoming nocturnal. Both, negative masking by light and entrainment to the dark phase appeared involved in the nocturnalism of these animals. Analysis of the thermoregulatory response to wheel running revealed some differences between masked and entrained nocturnal chronotypes.These data highlight the importance of the coupling between wheel running availability and ambient temperature in the nocturnalism of the degus. The results support the view that an innate “protective” pre-program mechanism (associating darkness and lower ambient temperature) may change the timing of behavioral activity in this species to reduce the potential risk of hyperthermia. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8278234/ /pubmed/34276317 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2021.684988 Text en Copyright © 2021 Bano-Otalora, Rol and Madrid. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Bano-Otalora, Beatriz
Rol, Maria Angeles
Madrid, Juan Antonio
Behavioral and Thermoregulatory Responses to Changes in Ambient Temperature and Wheel Running Availability in Octodon degus
title Behavioral and Thermoregulatory Responses to Changes in Ambient Temperature and Wheel Running Availability in Octodon degus
title_full Behavioral and Thermoregulatory Responses to Changes in Ambient Temperature and Wheel Running Availability in Octodon degus
title_fullStr Behavioral and Thermoregulatory Responses to Changes in Ambient Temperature and Wheel Running Availability in Octodon degus
title_full_unstemmed Behavioral and Thermoregulatory Responses to Changes in Ambient Temperature and Wheel Running Availability in Octodon degus
title_short Behavioral and Thermoregulatory Responses to Changes in Ambient Temperature and Wheel Running Availability in Octodon degus
title_sort behavioral and thermoregulatory responses to changes in ambient temperature and wheel running availability in octodon degus
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8278234/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34276317
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2021.684988
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