Search after neurobiological profile of individual-specific features of wistar rats

doi:10.1016/0361-9230(90)90288-B

Brain Research Bulletin

Volume 24, Issue 1, January 1990, Pages 49-69

https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-9230(90)90288-B Get rights and content

Abstract

The first part of this study demonstrates that the bimodal shape of variation in “fleeing” and “nonfleeing” or “freezing” rats of an outbred strain of Wistar rats forms part of an overall biomodal variation in behavioral responses to injections of agents, which selectively alter, or reflect, the noradrenergic or dopaminergic activity in the ventral striatum, and dopaminergic activity in the dorsal striatum, the GABA-ergic activity in the substantia nigra, pars reticulata, and the GABA-ergic activity in the deeper layers of the superior colliculus. It is concluded that the “fleeing” and “nonfleeing” rats, each of them marked by their own trans-situational consistency in pharmacological and behavioural responses, represent the two fundamentally different types of individuals which normally exist in unselected populations of rodents. The second part of this study demonstrates that the pharmacogenetic selection of apomorphine-susceptible (APO-SUS) and apomorphine-unsusceptible (APO-UNSUS) rats, i.e., one individual-specific feature of the overall bimodal variation for pharmacological responses in our outbred strain of rats, is a valid tool to disperse the above-mentioned individual-specific features as far as possible. First, these lines allowed us to prove that the overall bimodal shape of variation in pharmacological and behavioural responses of individual outbred rats is in part genetically determined. Second, these lines allowed us to prove that a bimodal variation in neurochemical features of the circuitry, in which the ventral striatum is embedded, underlies the overall bimodal variation in pharmacological and behavioural responses. Third, these lines allowed us to demonstrate that a fundamental difference in organizing behaviour with the help of external and internal information has to be considered as a common factor giving rise to the individual differentiation found in the present study. Given the motion that this individual differentiation appears to be valid across lines, substrains and strains of rats, the present study lays the foundation for understanding at least a part of the physiological basis underlying differences between the two fundamentally different types of individuals existing in populations of rodents.

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Citation Excerpt :
Data are presented either as an average gnawing counts of a given experimental group or as a population distribution of gnawing response into 3 sub-groups: no gnawing response (< 10 counts/45 min), a very intense gnawing response (> 500/45 min) and an intermediate response (11–500/45 min) [33,34,36]. The original gnawing experiments of Cools and colleagues [33,34] included one-day isolation prior testing. In our set-up we avoided a long isolation period prior our experiments as this is potentially stressful.
In the present study, we tested both the cumulative stress and the mismatch hypothesis of psychopathology. For this purpose the combined effects of early-life adversity and later-life stress exposure on behavioral markers of psychosis susceptibility were studied in male Wistar rats.
Experiment I: rat pups divided on the basis of the levels of their maternal care experience in low, medium or high maternal care groups, were reared post-weaning in groups (Exp. IA) or in social isolation (Exp. IB) and tested at adulthood under basal conditions or after an acute corticosterone (CORT) administration. Maternal care levels were assessed by measuring the dam's licking and grooming (LG) the first postnatal week of life.
Experiment II: rat pups exposed as neonates to daily sessions of 8 h of maternal separation (MS) on postnatal days 3, 4 and 5 either altogether in their home cage (HOME SEP) or alone in a novel environment (NOVEL SEP), were reared post-weaning in groups and tested at adulthood under basal conditions.
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The outcome of environmental manipulations on developmental programming of psychosis susceptibility depends on the interplay of early-life adversity and later-life stressors in a manner that supports the mismatch hypothesis. However, evidence for the cumulative stress hypothesis arises if vulnerable individuals are exposed in later life additionally to excess of the stress hormone CORT.

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Search after neurobiological profile of individual-specific features of wistar rats

Abstract

Dev. Biol.

Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav.

Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav.

Brain Res.

Behav. Brain Res.

Eur. J. Pharmacol.

Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav.

Eur. J. Pharmacol.

Behav. Brain Res.

Physiol. Behav.

Brain Res.

Eur. J. Pharmacol.

Neurosci. Lett.

Physiol. Behav.

Behav. Brain Res.

Neuroscience

Eur. J. Pharmacol.

Life Sci.

Brain Res.

Eur. J. Pharmacol.

Behav. Brain Res.

Behav. Brain Res.

Brain Res.

J. Steroid Biochem.

Neuroscience

Brain Res.

Brain Res.

Neurosci. Lett.

Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav.

Neuroscience

J. Biol. Chem.

Behav. Biol.

Neuroscience

Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.

Dev. Brain Res.

Dev. Brain Res.

Life Sci.

Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav.

Brain Res.

Brain Res.

Brain Res.

Brain Res.

Brain Res.

Neuroscience

Brain Res.

Brain Res.

Life Sci.

Brain mechanisms for offense, defense, and submission

Behav. Brain Sci.

Olfactory cues and movement: stimuli mediating intraspecific aggression in the wild Norway rat

J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol.