Search

Topographic organization of the cerebellum is largely segregated into the anterior and posterior lobes that represent its "motor" and "non-motor" functions, respectively. Although patients with damage to the anterior cerebellum often exhibit motor deficits, it remains unclear whether and how such an injury affects cognitive and social behaviors. To address this, we perturbed the activity of major anterior lobule IV/V in mice by either neurotoxic lesion or chemogenetic excitation of Purkinje cells in the cerebellar cortex. We found that both of the manipulations impaired motor coordination, but not general locomotion or anxiety-related behavior. The lesioned animals showed memory deficits in object recognition and social-associative recognition tests, which were confounded by a lack of exploration. Chemogenetic excitation of Purkinje cells disrupted the animals' social approach in a less-preferred context and social memory, without affecting their overall exploration and object-based memory. In a free social interaction test, the two groups exhibited less interaction with a stranger conspecific. Subsequent c-Fos imaging indicated that decreased neuronal activities in the medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampal dentate gyrus, parahippocampal cortices, and basolateral amygdala, as well as disorganized modular structures of the brain networks might underlie the reduced social interaction. These findings suggest that the anterior cerebellum plays an intricate role in processing motor, cognitive, and social functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Studies on the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have concluded that the disorder might be caused by a deficit in the inhibitory control of executive functions because of dopamine hypofunction. Recently, the intranasal route has emerged as an effective alternative means for sending dopamine directly to the brain. However, whether the treatment can ameliorate the deficits of inhibitory control in ADHD remains unknown. Objectives: Investigating the effects of acute intranasal dopamine (IN-DA) on the inhibitory control of executive functions of an ADHD rodent model. Methods: We trained an animal model of ADHD, the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), and Wistar rats as controls, in an attentional set-shifting task (ASST) in which dopamine (0.15 mg/kg, 0.3 mg/kg, or vehicle) was intranasally administered before the final test. Results: IN-DA application dose-dependently improved the performance and reduced errors of SHR in the initial reversal learning. The effect size was comparable to that of a peripheral injection of 0.6 mg/kg methylphenidate. In control Wistar rats, the highest dose of intranasal dopamine (0.3 mg/kg) induced deficits in the reversal learning of extradimensional discriminations. Conclusions: The findings suggest that the IN-DA treatment has potential for use in the treatment of ADHD; however, caution must be exercised when determining the dosage to be administered, because too much dopamine may have negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behaviors that are under the control of positive or negative reinforcers undergo extinction when the anticipated reward/reinforcer is withheld. Despair, an important symptom of environmentally determined depression in humans, can be generated by extinction, or the failure of expected reward to accrue. Although well known to clinicians dealing with depressive patients, an animal model has not been available for extinction-induced depression. We have made a beginning towards validating such a model, based on the extinction of negatively reinforced behavior in the rat, i.e., upon removal of the possibility to escape onto a safety platform in the water maze. As a marker for despair, we employed behavioral immobility, i.e., the cessation of swimming in the attempt to find safety from the water, presumably, a type of learned helplessness. This measure was sensitive to antidepressants and correlated with neurotransmitter contents, neurotrophins and hypothalamus–pituitary adrenal axis markers in selected sites of the brain. Given that some cases of depression in the elderly may be biologically distinct from others and from early-onset depression, and since particularly the aged are prone to experience extinction-induced despair, we compared aged (ca. 24 months old) animals with adults in most of our studies. We found a number of distinct differences in behavioral and biological measures, indicative of differences in propensity to, as well as response to, extinction-induced despair between aged and adults. Our results add to the body of evidence for differences in the neurobiological substrates of depressive disorders between aged and adults, with the implication for the requirement of different treatment strategies in these two populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NMDA-R ( N-methyl- d-aspartate receptors) have been implicated in synaptic plasticity underlying one-trial learning of event-place associations. In rodents, episodic-like memory (ELM) of personally experienced events can be inferred from behavior that reflects the remembrance of the content (what kind of object was presented), place (where was this object placed), and temporal context (when was the object presented). We have previously shown that that d-cycloserine (DCS), an NMDA-R agonist, ameliorates stress-induced deficits in ELM. In this study, we used an experimental protocol designed to detect promnestic drug effects and investigated whether DCS, which is known to enhance learning and memory, can induce ELM under conditions where mice normally do not show ELM. Mice that have been treated i.p. with DCS (20 mg/kg) both remembered the temporal order in which two different objects had been encountered during two consecutive sample trials, as well as their spatial position during the sample trials. Most importantly, the test trial performance of these mice is compatible with ELM in terms of an integrated memory for unique experiences comprising “what”, “where”, and “when” information. In contrast, mice that have received either a saline injection or lower doses of DCS (0.2 and 2.0 mg/kg) did not show such an integrated ELM. To our knowledge, this is the first report showing that DCS can promote ELM in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: The contribution of the 5-HT1A somato-dendritic autoreceptor populations to spontaneous and cocaine-induced locomotion is unclear. Objectives: To use a low dose range of ±8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propyla-mino) tetralin (8-OHDPAT) to preferentially stimulate 5- HT1A autoreceptors and a medium 8-OHDPAT dose range to stimulate both 5-HT1A autoreceptors and postsynaptic receptors as pretreatments prior to either saline or cocaine. Methods: In experiment 1, either a medium dose of 8- OHDPAT (0.4 mg/kg) or a low dose (0.05 mg/kg) was given as pretreatments 20 min before five separate 20-min open-field tests. In experiment 2, the pretreatments were changed to a low dose range of 8-OHDPAT (0.01- 0.05 mg/kg), with or without WAY 100635 (0.01- 0.05 mg/kg). In experiment 3, the 8-OHDPAT pretreatments (0.01, 0.025 or 0.05 mg/kg) were administered 20 min prior to saline or cocaine (10 mg/kg) tests. In experiment 4, a medium dose range (0.2-0.3 mg/kg) was given 20 min prior to saline or cocaine (10 mg/kg) tests. Results: Experiment 1 showed that 8-OHDPAT (0.4 mg/ kg) tended to increase locomotor activity but that pretreatment with 0.05 mg/kg severely suppressed locomotor activity. In experiment 2, 8-OHDPAT in the low dose range inhibited locomotor activity and this effect was reversed by co-administration of WAY 100635. Experiment 3 showed that the low-dose 8-OHDPAT pretreatment reduced locomotor activity in saline but not cocaine tests. In experiment 4, 8-OHDPAT in the medium dose range enhanced locomotor activity in cocaine tests. Conclusions: It is suggested that the facilitatory effect of 8-OHDPAT on cocaine-induced locomotor stimulation is mediated by inhibition of 5-HT1A somato-dendritic autoreceptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the impact of strain and sex in the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) animal model of Parkinson's disease, C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice were treated with either systemic MPTP-HCl (4 × 15 mg/kg) or saline and were examined in a number of behavioral tests. Furthermore, neostriatal and ventral striatal monoamine contents were determined, and the numbers of tyrosine hydroxylase-immunostained cells were counted in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area. Open-field testing showed that locomotor activity was drastically reduced as an acute effect of MPTP in both strains; however, subsequent recovery to control levels was faster in BALB/c mice than in C57BL/6. Nest building also indicated strain-dependent effects, since it was delayed only in C57BL/6 mice treated with MPTP. The other tests (grip test, pole test, rotarod, elevated plus-maze), although partly sensitive for overall strain or gender differences, turned out not to be useful to compare MPTP effects in these two strains. Neurochemically, MPTP led to more severe neostriatal dopamine depletions in C57BL/6 (-85%) than in BALB/c mice (-58%). Histologically, a loss of tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity (-25%) was observed only in the substantia nigra of C57BL/6 animals. Thus, our analysis consistently showed that the C57BL/6 mouse strain is more susceptible to MPTP than the BALB/c strain. Sex differences in MPTP sensitivity were not observed in our mice. The implications of these findings for the search for genes related to susceptibility to neurodegeneration are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been an increasing interest in the role of neuropeptides in the integration of brain functions. Besides the well-known positive-reinforcing effects of Substance P (SP) in prosencephalic regions, a role of this neuropeptide in the generation of aversive states in mesencephalic structures has also been envisaged. Evidence from a previous study suggests an involvement of SP in the neural substrates of aversion in the dorsal periaqueductal gray matter (DPAG). In the present study, we investigate whether N- and C-terminal fragments of Substance P are responsible for the effects produced by microinjections of SP into the dorsal periaqueductal gray. The results show that SP and its C-terminal fragment SP7–11 produced a behavioral activation with increases in locomotor activity, grooming, and rearings, while the N-terminal fragment SP1–7 produced only an increase in vertical exploratory activity. The effects were more pronounced with intermediate doses of SP and its C-fragment, confirming the characteristic bell-shaped dose-effect function of this neuropeptide. The proaversive effects observed with DPAG microinjections of these neuropeptides in the present study gain further relevance when combined with previous reports showing unconditioned and conditioned aversive effects following DPAG microinjections of SP in the place aversion and the elevated plus maze tests, two widely used animal models of anxiety. These results confirm previous data showing that SP has a modulatory role in the DPAG and that its effects are probably due to its C-terminal fragment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies in the rat have shown that the hypothalamic tuberomammillary nucleus, the major source of neuronal histamine, is related to mechanisms of learning, memory, reinforcement, and functional recovery. These functional relationships were found to be partly lateralized. Therefore, we decided to analyze whether unilateral ibotenic acid lesions aimed at this brain region would acutely lead to asymmetries in open-field behavior, and whether they would affect the biogenic amines dopamine and serotonin in the neostriatum, hippocampus, and tectum. We compared this manipulation with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the substantia nigra pars compacta and with unilateral ibotenic acid lesions of the substantia nigra pars reticulata. These lesions were investigated because all three brain areas are anatomically linked to the neostriatum, are related to the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, and play a role in behavioral asymmetry and functional recovery. In support of previous findings, our data show that 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the substantia nigra pars compacta led to an ipsiversive asymmetry in turning and scanning. Ibotenic acid lesions of the adjacent pars reticulata led to contraversive turning, whereas thigmotactic scanning was reduced bilaterally. In contrast, ibotenic acid lesions of the tuberomammillary nucleus did not affect turning, but led to an ipsilateral asymmetry in scanning. Neurochemically, the 6-hydroxydopamine lesion was mainly characterized by the well-known ipsilateral neostriatal dopamine depletion and increased residual dopamine activity. In hippocampus and tectum, these transmitters were not specifically affected, except for an asymmetry of serotonin in the superior colliculus. The ibotenic acid lesions of the pars reticulata did not deplete neostriatal dopamine, indicating that they spared the dopaminergic output of the substantia nigra. In contrast, they affected dopaminergic and serotonergic measures in the colliculi, which may be due to damage of the nigral GABAergic projection to this brain area. In animals with unilateral ibotenic acid lesions of the tuberomammillary nucleus, several markers of dopaminergic and serotonergic acitivity were increased in the neostriatum, tectum, and hippocampus. This effect may have been due to the loss of inhibition otherwise provided by the wide-ranging histaminergic output of the tuberomammillary nucleus. These results are discussed with respect to the major outputs of the three brain areas, their potential impacts on neurotransmitters in their projection sites, and their role in behavioral asymmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dopaminergic system plays a central role in the processing of reward or reinforcement since drugs that have reinforcing properties all share the ability to elevate dopamine (DA) levels in the nucleus accumbens or neostriatum. Histamine H1 receptor antagonists are known to have reinforcing effects in humans and laboratory rats. Here, we examined the effect of systemic (i.p.) treatment with two H1 antagonists, chlorpheniramine and pyrilamine, on the extracellular levels of DA and its metabolites dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovanillic acid (HVA) in the neostriatum and nucleus accumbens of urethane-anesthetized rats. Dopamine and metabolites were measured using in vivo microdialysis and HPLC with electrochemical detection. Saline injections did not produce significant effects on DA, DOPAC, or HVA levels in the neostriatum or nucleus accumbens. In the neostriatum, chlorpheniramine administration (5 and 20 mg/kg) produced a sustained increase in DA to approximately 140 and 180% of pre-injection baseline levels, respectively. In the nucleus accumbens, chlorpheniramine (20 mg/kg) produced a transient increase in DA levels to about 300% of baseline. In both the neostriatum and nucleus accumbens, DOPAC and HVA decreased after chlorpheniramine treatment. Pyrilamine administration (10 and 20 mg/kg) produced a sustained increase in neostriatal DA levels to 140 and 165%, respectively, and accumbens DA increased transiently to 230% after a dose of 20 mg/kg. Levels of neostriatal and accumbens DOPAC and HVA decreased after pyrilamine treatment. These results show that H1 antagonists can potently enhance DA levels in the neostriatum and nucleus accumbens of urethane-anesthetized rats. The neurochemical effects on DA and its metabolites seen here (increased DA, decreased DOPAC and HVA) are similar to those commonly observed with drugs of abuse (e.g. psychostimulants). The interaction of H1 antagonists with dopaminergic transmission may explain the reinforcing effects and abuse potential associated with these compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

D-cycloserine (DCS) and amantadine (AMA) act as partial NMDA receptor (R) agonist and antagonist, respectively. In the present study, we compared the effects of DCS and AMA on dopamine D2/3R binding in the brain of adult rats in relation to motor behavior. D2/3R binding was determined with small animal SPECT in baseline and after challenge with DCS (20 mg/kg) or AMA (40 mg/kg) with [123I]IBZM as radioligand. Immediately post-challenge, motor/exploratory behavior was assessed for 30 min in an open field. The regional binding potentials (ratios of the specifically bound compartments to the cerebellar reference region) were computed in baseline and post-challenge. DCS increased D2/3R binding in nucleus accumbens, substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area, thalamus, frontal, motor and parietal cortex as well as anterodorsal and posterior hippocampus, whereas AMA decreased D2/3R binding in nucleus accumbens, caudateputamen and thalamus. After DCS, ambulation and head-shoulder motility were decreased, while sitting was increased compared to vehicle and AMA. Moreover, DCS increased rearing relative to AMA. The regional elevations of D2/3R binding after DCS reflect a reduction of available dopamine throughout the mesolimbocortical system. In contrast, the reductions of D2/3R binding after AMA indicate increased dopamine in nucleus accumbens, caudateputamen and thalamus. Findings imply that, after DCS, nigrostriatal and mesolimbic dopamine levels are directly related to motor/exploratory activity, whereas an inverse relationship may be inferred for AMA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuropsychiatric problems such as Autism and Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are characterized by hyperactivity and attention problems. Intranasal application of dopamine (IN-DA) in adult normal rats increases motor activity in different behavioural tasks via DA receptors on mesostriatal and mesolimbic DA neurons (De Souza Silva et al., 2008). The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of prepuberal IN-DA on activity, non selective (NSA) and selective spatial attention (SSA), tyrosine hydroxylase and DARPP-32 histochemistry in prepuberal male rats of the Naples High Excitability line (NHE). The latter are a genetic model for the mesocortical variant of ADHD with altered executive functions (Ruocco L.A. et al., 2009). NHE rats received daily application of DA (0.0, 0.075, 0.15, 0.3 mg/kg) into both nostrils, for 15 days from day 28 to day 42. One hour after last IN-DA, rats were tested in a La`t maze and a radial maze on successive days. Activity was monitored by frequency of horizontal (HA) and vertical activity (VA; rearings and leanings against the walls), NSA and SSA by duration of rearing and leaning episodes in the La`t maze; in the radial maze SSA was assessed by position of the first repetitive arm entry. Behavioural data showed 1) a decreased HA with 0.3 mg/kg; 2) increased VA by rearings with 0.075 mg/kg; 3) increased duration of leaning with 0.3 mg/kg; 4) increased working memory with 0.15 mg/kg. Histochemical data revealed 1) an increase TH expression in medial and lateral mesencephalon and dorsal and ventral striatum with 0.3 mg/kg. In summary, the differential effect of IN-DA in NHE rats consisted in reduced hyperactivity (0.3 mg/kg), improved non-selective (0.075 mg/ kg) and selective attention (0.15 mg/kg) and increased density of TH-positive sites (0.3 mg/kg). While increased TH expression might reveal the signal nature of DA itself for pruning of DA terminals, the behavioural data suggest a potential application of IN-DA for therapeutic management of ADHD in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]