Jonas Hauser

GABAA receptors containing the α5 subunit mediate the trace effect in aversive and appetitive conditioning and extinction of conditioned fear

A reduction in α5 subunit‐containing γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)A receptors has been reported to enhance some forms of learning in mutant mouse models. This effect has been attributed to impaired α5 GABAA receptor‐mediated inhibitory modulation in the hippocampus. The introduction of a point mutation (H105R) in the α5 subunit is associated with a specific reduction of α5 subunit‐containing GABAA receptors in the hippocampus. The present study examined the modulation of associative learning and the extinction of conditioned response in these animals. The strength of classical conditioning can be weakened when a trace interval is interposed between the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus. Here we report that this ‘trace effect’ in classical conditioning was absent in the mutant mice − they were insensitive to the imposition of a 20‐s trace interval. This effect of the mutation was most clearly in the female mice using an aversive conditioning paradigm, and in the male mice using an appetitive conditioning paradigm. These gender‐specific phenotypes were accompanied by a resistance to extinction of conditioned fear response in the mutant mice that was apparent in both genders. Our results identify neuronal inhibition in the hippocampus mediated via α5 GABAA receptors as a critical control element in the regulation of the acquisition and expression of associative memory.

Prenatal dexamethasone exposure, postnatal development, and adulthood prepulse inhibition and latent inhibition in Wistar rats.

Prenatal stress is an important risk factor in schizophrenia, and the aetiological factors mediating this relationship are central to the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia. The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) agonist dexamethasone (DEX) is commonly prescribed for prenatal conditions, and results in GR activation, which is part of the stress response. To investigate animal evidence for whether prenatal DEX leads to development of schizophrenia-like phenotypes, Wistar rats were prenatally exposed to DEX (0.1mg/kg/day) between the gestational days 15 and 21, and tested in two paradigms known to be disrupted in schizophrenia patients: prepulse inhibition (PPI) and latent inhibition (LI). A cross-fostering design was used to allow dissociation of any direct prenatal effects on offspring from effects dependent on DEX exposure of the rearing dam. Pup birth weight was reduced by prenatal DEX treatment. DEX-treated dams demonstrated increased pup-directed behaviour. There were additive effects of prenatal DEX treatment and DEX treatment of rearing dam in terms of reduced body weight in adulthood. In one of two replications, PPI was increased by prenatal DEX in males only and specific to the highest prepulse intensity. There was no evidence that LI was disrupted by prenatal DEX treatment. This study does not provide support for the hypothesis that prenatal DEX exposure leads to schizophrenia-like deficits in PPI or LI, suggesting that GR prenatal programming is not a mechanism of direct relevance to the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia.

Direct and dam-mediated effects of prenatal dexamethasone on emotionality, cognition and HPA axis in adult Wistar rats

Prenatal stress can affect foetal neurodevelopment and result in increased risk of depression in adulthood. It promotes increased maternal hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal gland (HPA) secretion of glucocorticoid (GC), leading to increased foetal and maternal GC receptor activity. Prenatal GC receptor activity is also increased during prenatal treatment with dexamethasone (DEX), which is commonly prescribed as a prophylactic treatment of preterm delivery associated morbid symptoms. Here, we exposed pregnant Wistar rats to 0.1 mg/kg/d DEX during the last week of pregnancy and performed cross-fostering at birth. In the adult offspring we then studied the effects of prenatal DEX exposure per se and the effects of rearing by a dam exposed to prenatal DEX. Offspring were assessed in the following paradigms testing biobehavioural processes that are altered in depression: progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement (anhedonia), Porsolt forced swim test (behavioural despair), US pre-exposure active avoidance (learned helplessness), Morris water maze (spatial memory) and HPA axis activity (altered HPA function). Responsiveness to a physical stressor in terms of HPA activity was increased in male offspring exposed prenatally to DEX. Despite this increased HPA axis reactivity, we observed no alteration of the assessed behaviours in offspring exposed prenatally to DEX. We observed impairment in spatial memory in offspring reared by DEX exposed dams, independently of prenatal treatment. This study does not support the hypothesis that prenatal DEX exposure leads to depression-like symptoms in rats, despite the observed sex-specific programming effect on HPA axis. It does however emphasise the importance of rearing environment on adult cognitive performances.

Effects of Prenatal Dexamethasone Treatment on Physical Growth, Pituitary-Adrenal Hormones, and Performance of Motor, Motivational, and Cognitive Tasks in Juvenile and Adolescent Common Marmoset Monkeys

Synthetic glucocorticoids such as dexamethasone (DEX) are commonly used to prevent respiratory distress syndrome in preterm infants, but there is emerging evidence of subsequent neurobehavioral abnormalities (e.g. problems with inattention/hyperactivity). In the present study, we exposed pregnant common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus, primates) to daily repeated DEX (5 mg/kg by mouth) during either early (d 42-48) or late (d 90-96) pregnancy (gestation period of 144 days). Relative to control, and with a longitudinal design, we investigated DEX effects in offspring in terms of physical growth, plasma ACTH and cortisol titers, social and maintenance behaviors, skilled motor reaching, motivation for palatable reward, and learning between infancy and adolescence. Early DEX resulted in reduced sociability in infants and increased motivation for palatable reward in adolescents. Late DEX resulted in a mild transient increase in knee-heel length in infants and enhanced reversal learning of stimulus-reward association in adolescents. There was no effect of either early or late DEX on basal plasma ACTH or cortisol titers. Both treatments resulted in impaired skilled motor reaching in juveniles, which attenuated in early DEX but persisted in late DEX across test sessions. The increased palatable-reward motivation and decreased social motivation observed in early DEX subjects provide experimental support for the clinical reports that prenatal glucocorticoid treatment impairs social development and predisposes to metabolic syndrome. These novel primate findings indicate that fetal glucocorticoid overexposure can lead to abnormal development of motor, affective, and cognitive behaviors. Importantly, the outcome is highly dependent upon the timing of glucocorticoid overexposure.

A Developmental Switch in Place Cell Accuracy Coincides with Grid Cell Maturation

Summary Place cell firing relies on information about self-motion and the external environment, which may be conveyed by grid and border cells, respectively. Here, we investigate the possible contributions of these cell types to place cell firing, taking advantage of a developmental time window during which stable border cell, but not grid cell, inputs are available. We find that before weaning, the place cell representation of space is denser, more stable, and more accurate close to environmental boundaries. Boundary-responsive neurons such as border cells may, therefore, contribute to stable and accurate place fields in pre-weanling rats. By contrast, place cells become equally stable and accurate throughout the environment after weaning and in adulthood. This developmental switch in place cell accuracy coincides with the emergence of the grid cell network in the entorhinal cortex, raising the possibility that grid cells contribute to stable place fields when an organism is far from environmental boundaries.

Prepulse inhibition predicts working memory performance whilst startle habituation predicts spatial reference memory retention in C57BL/6 mice.

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex refers to the attenuation of the startle response to an intense pulse stimulus when it is shortly preceded by a weak non-startling prepulse stimulus. It is a well-established high-throughput translational measure of pre-attentive sensory gating, and its impairment is detected in several neuropsychiatric diseases including schizophrenia. It has been hypothesized that PPI might be associated with, or predictive of, cognitive deficiency in such diseases, and therefore provide an efficient assay for screening drugs with potential pro-cognitive efficacy. Free from any predetermined disease model, the present study evaluated in a homogeneous cohort of inbred C57BL/6 mice the presence of a statistical link between PPI expression and cognitive performance. Performance indices in a spatial reference memory test and a working memory test conducted in the Morris water maze, and contextual fear conditioning were correlated against pre-existing baseline PPI expression. A specific correlative link between working memory and PPI induced by weak (but not strong) prepulse was revealed. In addition, a correlation between habituation of the startle reflex and reference memory was identified for the first time: a stronger overt habituation effect was associated with superior spatial search accuracy. The PPI paradigm thus provides two independent predictors of dissociable cognitive traits in normal C57BL/6 mice; and they might serve as potential markers for high-throughput evaluation of potential cognitive enhancers, especially in the context of schizophrenia where deficits in startle habituation and PPI co-exist.

Evaluating spatial memory function in mice: A within-subjects comparison between the water maze test and its adaptation to dry land

The Morris water maze (WM) is a common spatial memory test in rats. It has been adapted for evaluating genetic manipulations in mice. One major acknowledged problem of this cross-species translation is floating. We investigated here in mice the feasibility and practicality of an alternative paradigm-the cheeseboard (CB), which is a dry version of the WM, in a within-subject design allowing direct comparison with the conventional WM. Under identical task demands (reference or working memory), mice learned in the CB as efficiently as in the WM. Furthermore, individual differences in learning rate correlated between the two reference memory tests conducted separately in the two mazes. However, no such correlation was found with respect to reference memory retention or working memory performance. This study demonstrated that the CB is an effective alternative to the WM as spatial cognition test. Additional tests in the CB confirmed that the mice relied on extra maze cues in their spatial search. We would recommend the CB as a valuable addition to, rather than a replacement of the WM in phenotyping transgenic mice, because the two apparatus might diverge in the ability to detect individual differences in various domains of mnemonic functions.

Baseline prepulse inhibition expression predicts the propensity of developing sensitization to the motor stimulant effects of amphetamine in C57BL/6 mice

RationaleThe startle reflex to a sudden intense acoustic pulse stimulus is attenuated if the pulse is shortly preceded by a weak prepulse stimulus. This represents a form of sensory gating, known as prepulse inhibition (PPI), observable across species. PPI is modulated by dopamine and readily disrupted by acute amphetamine. Prior repeated exposures to amphetamine also disrupt PPI even when the drug is not present during test, suggesting that a sensitized mesolimbic dopamine system—inducible even by a single exposure to amphetamine—might be responsible. However, this causative link has been challenged by inconsistent efficacy between different amphetamine pre-treatment regimes, which all robustly sensitize the behavioral response to amphetamine.MethodsHere, the presence of such a link in reverse was tested by comparing the propensity to develop amphetamine sensitization between high- and low-PPI expressing individuals identified within a homogeneous cohort of C57BL/6 mice. Comparison of dopamine content including its metabolites was performed separately in drug naïve mice by post-mortem HPLC.ResultsBehavioral sensitization was substantially stronger in the low-PPI group compared with the high-PPI group, while the magnitude of their response to the first amphetamine challenge was similar. Dopamine content within the nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex was significantly higher in low-PPI relative to high-PPI mice.ConclusionIndividuals with weak sensory gating characterized by low basal PPI expression may be more susceptible to the development of dopamine sensitization and therefore at greater risk of developing schizophrenia. Conversely, high baseline expression might predict a resistance to dopaminergic sensitization.

Developmental Consequences of Prenatal Administration of Glucocorticoids in Rodents and Primates

Since their first use in 1972 by Liggins and Howie, prenatal exposure to synthetic glucocorticoids (GCs) is commonplace in antenatal medicine to impede the preterm birth-associated morbid symptoms. Synthetic GCs are ligands of the receptor of endogenous GC, the glucocorticoid receptor. Although prenatal GC is warranted for its increased survival rate of preterm infants, the repeated exposure to synthetic GC long-term effects has been questioned, and investigation of potentially harmful long-term effects in animal studies is required. I will first summarise the existing findings in animal studies, which include two robust phenotypes: a transient reduction of body weight and alteration of the hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal gland axis activity. Several studies assessed the neurotransmitters’ concentrations in animals exposed to prenatal GC and reported an overall increased activity of serotoninergic and dopaminergic systems. Prenatal GC administration has also been shown to increase anxiety and reduce cognitive abilities in the long term. All these effects have been proposed to be mediated via epigenetics programming, which is the change of gene expression caused by mechanisms other than the DNA sequence (e.g. promoter methylation). Interestingly, the same mechanism has been proposed to mediate the long-term effects of altered maternal behaviour, suggesting that the developing individual, from conception until weaning, is undergoing epigenetics programming based on its environment.