Effects of an Early Handling-Like Procedure and Individual Housing on Anxiety-Like Behavior in Adult C57BL/6J and DBA/2J Mice

Abstract

Manipulations of rearing conditions have been used to examine the effects of early experience on adult behavior with varying results. Evidence suggests that postnatal days (PND) 15–21 are a time of particular susceptibility to environmental influences on anxiety-like behavior in mice. To examine this, we subjected C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice to an early handling-like procedure. Pups were separated from dams from PND 12–20 for 30 minutes daily or received standard care. On PND 21, pups were weaned and either individually- or group- housed. On PND 60, anxiety-like behavior was examined on the elevated zero-maze. Although individually- housed animals took longer to enter an open quadrant of the maze, they spent more time in the open than group-housed animals. Additionally, we observed a trend of reduced anxiety-like behavior in C57BL/6J, but not DBA/2J mice that underwent the handling-like procedure.

Abnormal vibrissa‐related behavior and loss of barrel field inhibitory neurons in 5xFAD transgenics

“…Considerable evidence also implicates the subiculum as a mediator of some social behaviors and social cognition. Gonzalez-Lima et al (1994) showed that individually housed mice given twice-daily opportunities for social interaction had significantly higher 2-deoxyglucose incorporation in the subiculum than socially deprived controls, suggesting that higher subicular metabolic activity is associated with social activity. Inhibition of cannabinoid receptors in the subiculum had a profound affect on social recognition, impairing acquisition, consolidation and retrieval (Segev & Akirav 2011).…”

“…Three commonly‐used anxiety tests were conducted as previously described (Bernardo et al ; Dhanushkodi & McDonald ; Flanigan & Cook ; Harrison et al ,c, ; Reiserer et al ). All three tests were conducted in the same room, under fluorescent lighting that provided illumination of 750–900 lux at the maze surfaces.…”

An overview of maternal separation effects on behavioural outcomes in mice: Evidence from a four-stage methodological systematic review

“…According to some reviews, the exponential increase in maternal separation studies in rodents has led to discrepancies in the reported effects of ELS on neurobiological and behavioural outcomes (Andersen, 2015;Nylander and Roman, 2013;Tata, 2012). Indeed, several studies have found either no maternal separation effect on some behavioural and neurobiological parameters (Boasen et al, 2009;Flanigan and Cook, 2011;Franklin et al, 2010;Millstein and Holmes, 2007) or effects opposite those predicted (Fabricius et al, 2008;Franklin et al, 2010;Gapp et al, 2014;Own and Patel, 2013 performance. In addition, some ELS behavioural effects seem to depend on the strain used in the study, with evidence indicating that the BALB/c strain is the most sensitive in exhibiting such behavioural effects.…”

Sex-specific positive and negative consequences of avoidance training during childhood on adult active avoidance learning in mice

“…As already mentioned, infancy and adolescence are time windows, which are characterized by pronounced functional maturation of neural circuits (review Spear, 2000). On the neuronal level there is a host of evidence that positive as well as adverse environmental conditions and experience during these critical time windows of neuronal development and synaptic reorganization dramatically interfere with the maturation of functional brain pathways (Rice and Barone, 2000; Chambers et al, 2003; Bock et al, 2005, 2013; Sullivan et al, 2006; Hunt et al, 2007; Lupien et al, 2009; Flanigan and Cook, 2011). On the behavioral level a variety of studies in humans and animals revealed that manipulations in early life such as handling, maternal separation and footshock either enhanced (Domes et al, 2002; Smeets et al, 2007; Schwabe et al, 2008) or impaired (Kirschbaum et al, 1996; Elzinga et al, 2005; Diamond et al, 2006) learning and memory functions depending on the timing of the manipulation, sex and the task (for review see Kosten et al, 2012).…”