Differences in Acquisition of Discrete Lever-Press and Shuttle Avoidance Responses in 6 Strains of Mice

Abstract

Abstract-Characteristics of the acquisition processes of discrete lever-press and shuttle avoidance responses (intertrial interval=25 sec, warning duration=5 sec with an escape contingency, and 1 session=l hr training/day) as well as those of the ambulatory activity were investigated in 6 strains of mice (dd, ICR, BALB/c, C57BL/6, C3H/He and DBA/2).In the lever-press avoidance situation, the dd, BALB/c and DBA/2 strains demonstrated a good avoidance response, showing average avoidance rates of higher than 80% within 10-15 sessions of the training. The C3H/He also demonstrated a good avoidance response, though 20 sessions or more of the training were required to attain to the level. The ICR and C57BL/6 strains demonstrated a poorer avoidance response than the other 4 strains, and achieved average avoidance rates of 30-40%.The dd, BALB/c, C3H/He and DBA/ 2 strains also demonstrated a good shuttle avoidance response when they were trained in an experimental box of 50 cm in width.In contrast, the ICR and C57BL/ 6 strains demonstrated an extremely poor avoidance response in this situation, showing an average avoidance rate of less than 10%. However, when the dd, ICR and C57BL/6 strains were trained in a shuttle box of 30 cm in width, they rapidly acquired the avoidance response, and the average avoidance rates finally achieved were much higher than those of the mice trained in the shuttle box of 50 cm in width.In particular, the C57BL/6 strain exhibited the best avoidance response among the 3 strains. The ambulatory activity of the C57BL/6 strain was less than those of the other 5 strains.

An Anxiolytic-Like Effect ofGinkgo bilobaExtract and Its Constituent, Ginkgolide-A, in Mice

“…In this way, five mice could be subjected to the avoidance test at the same time. The shuttle avoidance test 37 is a measure of learned behavior in which the test animal is trained to move from one side of the test chamber to the other in order to avoid a foot shock which is delivered at a specific interval after an audible tone. For our studies, each avoidance trial consisted of the following: (1) a warning period of 5 s during which an 800 Hz tone signal was sounded; (2) a shock period of 1 s (100 V, 0.3 mA, 50 Hz AC); and (3) an inter-trial period of 24 s. In each session of 60 min, 120 avoidance trials were conducted, and the indices of avoidance behavior determined based on the number of shuttles (movement of the mouse completely across the chamber) and the number of shocks.…”

Effects of Ceruletide, Administered Singly and in Combination with Central-Acting Drugs, on Discrete Shuttle Avoidance Response in Mice

“…The experimental procedure and the ap paratus (experimental chamber, behavior controlling and data-recording apparatus: GT-8450, De CARES GT-5 and TIDP-10, respectively; O'hara & Co.) were the same as those applied in our previous experiment (10).…”

Differential Neurosensitivity to the Discriminative Stimulus Properties of Ethanol in C57BL/6J and C3H/He Mice

“…The results of the two experiments suggest that with a sufficiently high training dose and/or number of training sessions, C3H can learn the ethanol/saline discrimination and can achieve a degree of accuracy comparable to the C57 strain. Thus, although C3H mice reportedly perform poorly relative to C57 mice in various learning tasks (Ammassari-Teule et al, 1993;Kuribara and Tadokoro, 1986;Roullet and Lassalle, 1995), and strain differences in learning might contribute to differences in acquisition, the strain differences noted during the generalization tests that were conducted after acquisition clearly reveal differential sensitivity to the ethanol cue in the two mouse strains.…”