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Brain gain—Is the cognitive performance of domestic hens affected by a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene?

The serotonin transporter (5-HTT) plays an important role in regulating serotonergic transmission via removal of serotonin (5-HT) from synaptic clefts. Alterations in 5-HTT expression and subsequent 5-HT transmission have been found to be associated with changes in behaviour, such as fearfulness or...

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Autores principales: Dudde, Anissa, Phi Van, Loc, Schrader, Lars, Obert, Arnd J., Krause, E. Tobias
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9521620/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36186393
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.901022
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author Dudde, Anissa
Phi Van, Loc
Schrader, Lars
Obert, Arnd J.
Krause, E. Tobias
author_facet Dudde, Anissa
Phi Van, Loc
Schrader, Lars
Obert, Arnd J.
Krause, E. Tobias
author_sort Dudde, Anissa
collection PubMed
description The serotonin transporter (5-HTT) plays an important role in regulating serotonergic transmission via removal of serotonin (5-HT) from synaptic clefts. Alterations in 5-HTT expression and subsequent 5-HT transmission have been found to be associated with changes in behaviour, such as fearfulness or activity, in humans and other vertebrates. In humans, alterations in 5-HTT expression have been suggested to be able to lead to better learning performance, with more fearful persons being better at learning. Similar effects of the variation in the 5-HTT on fearfulness have been found in chickens, and in this study, we investigated effects on learning. Therefore, we tested 52 adult laying hens, differing in their functional 5-HTT genotype (W/W, W/D and D/D) in an operant learning paradigm in three different phases (initial learning, reversal learning and extinction) and in a tonic immobility test for fearfulness. We found that the 5-HTT polymorphism affects the initial learning performance of laying hens, with homogeneous wild-type (W/W) hens being the slowest learners, and the most fearful birds. W/W hens, showed significantly more choices to solve the initial learning task (LME, p = 0.031) and had the highest latencies in a tonic immobility test (p = 0.039), indicating the highest fearfulness. Our results provide interesting first insights into the role of 5-HTT in chickens and its sensitive interaction with the environment. We further suggest that the 5-HTT gene can be an interesting target gene for future breeding strategies as well as for further experimental studies.
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spelling pubmed-95216202022-09-30 Brain gain—Is the cognitive performance of domestic hens affected by a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene? Dudde, Anissa Phi Van, Loc Schrader, Lars Obert, Arnd J. Krause, E. Tobias Front Psychol Psychology The serotonin transporter (5-HTT) plays an important role in regulating serotonergic transmission via removal of serotonin (5-HT) from synaptic clefts. Alterations in 5-HTT expression and subsequent 5-HT transmission have been found to be associated with changes in behaviour, such as fearfulness or activity, in humans and other vertebrates. In humans, alterations in 5-HTT expression have been suggested to be able to lead to better learning performance, with more fearful persons being better at learning. Similar effects of the variation in the 5-HTT on fearfulness have been found in chickens, and in this study, we investigated effects on learning. Therefore, we tested 52 adult laying hens, differing in their functional 5-HTT genotype (W/W, W/D and D/D) in an operant learning paradigm in three different phases (initial learning, reversal learning and extinction) and in a tonic immobility test for fearfulness. We found that the 5-HTT polymorphism affects the initial learning performance of laying hens, with homogeneous wild-type (W/W) hens being the slowest learners, and the most fearful birds. W/W hens, showed significantly more choices to solve the initial learning task (LME, p = 0.031) and had the highest latencies in a tonic immobility test (p = 0.039), indicating the highest fearfulness. Our results provide interesting first insights into the role of 5-HTT in chickens and its sensitive interaction with the environment. We further suggest that the 5-HTT gene can be an interesting target gene for future breeding strategies as well as for further experimental studies. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-09-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9521620/ /pubmed/36186393 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.901022 Text en Copyright © 2022 Dudde, Phi Van, Schrader, Obert and Krause. 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 Psychology
Dudde, Anissa
Phi Van, Loc
Schrader, Lars
Obert, Arnd J.
Krause, E. Tobias
Brain gain—Is the cognitive performance of domestic hens affected by a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene?
title Brain gain—Is the cognitive performance of domestic hens affected by a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene?
title_full Brain gain—Is the cognitive performance of domestic hens affected by a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene?
title_fullStr Brain gain—Is the cognitive performance of domestic hens affected by a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene?
title_full_unstemmed Brain gain—Is the cognitive performance of domestic hens affected by a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene?
title_short Brain gain—Is the cognitive performance of domestic hens affected by a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene?
title_sort brain gain—is the cognitive performance of domestic hens affected by a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene?
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9521620/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36186393
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.901022
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