8-OH-DPAT inhibits both prandial and waterspray-induced grooming

Abstract

The effects of 8-OH-DPAT treatment on rat grooming behaviour, elicited either prandially or in response to spraying with water were investigated. Dose (< or =0.1 mg/kg s.c.) response studies employed momentary time sampling over 30 or 60 min with behaviour being scored in one of 6 or 7 (depending on food availability) mutually exclusive categories (feeding, active, scratching, face-grooming, body grooming, genital-grooming and resting) at 15 s intervals. In non-deprived rats, tested with wet mash available, feeding and activity frequencies were increased, but resting and total grooming were inhibited by 8-OH-DPAT. Face-, body- and genital-grooming occurred at higher levels than scratching, but all categories were reduced with reductions in scratching occurring at a lower dose (0.01 mg/kg). Misting rats with a fine water spray selectively increased body grooming and decreased activity without altering feeding, while 8-OH-DPAT increased feeding and reduced face-, body- and genital-grooming, without affecting already low levels of scratching. In misted rats, tested without food, 8-OH-DPAT reduced face-, body- and genital-grooming and increased resting. These results confirm i) that the water spray technique is a useful method for increasing grooming and ii) that 8-OH-DPAT has a suppressant effect on grooming independent of response competition from enhanced feeding.

Validation and implementation of a novel high-throughput behavioral phenotyping instrument for mice

“…We assessed the construct validity of our measures by using pharmacological, genetic and physiological manipulations in mouse models that produce well-characterized behavioral alterations. We examined water misting, a classic intervention to stimulate mild grooming (Kyzar et al, 2011; Hartley and Montgomery, 2008); restraint stress, which has been used as a model for stress and dramatically increases grooming (Zhang et al, 2011; Dunn and Swiergiel, 1999); and the recently described model for autism, the BTBR mouse (Pobbe et al, 2010; Amodeo et al, 2012). To explore the wider implementation of our system, we also examined pain behavior.…”