Individual difference in prepulse inhibition does not predict spatial learning and memory performance in C57BL/6 mice

Abstract

The startle reflex to an intense acoustic pulse stimulus is attenuated if the pulse stimulus is shortly preceded by a weak non-startling prepulse stimulus. This attenuation of the startle reflex represents a form of pre-attentional sensory gating known as prepulse inhibition (PPI). Although PPI does not require learning, its expression is regulated by higher cognitive processes. PPI deficits have been detected in several psychiatric conditions including schizophrenia where they coexist with cognitive deficits. A potential link between PPI expression and cognitive performance has therefore been suggested such that poor PPI may predict, or may be mechanistically linked to, overt cognitive impairments. A positive relationship between PPI and strategy formation, planning efficiency, and execution speed has been observed in healthy humans. However, parallel studies in healthy animals are rare. It thus remains unclear what cognitive domains may be associated with, or orthogonal to, sensory gating in the form of PPI in healthy animals. The present study evaluated a potential link between the magnitude of PPI and spatial memory performance by comparing two subgroups of animals differing substantially in baseline PPI expression (low-PPI vs high-PPI) within a homogenous cohort of 100 male adult C57BL/6 mice. Assessment of spatial reference memory in the Morris water maze and spatial recognition memory in the Y-maze failed to reveal any difference between low-PPI and high-PPI subjects. These negative findings contrast with our previous reports that individual difference in PPI correlated with sustained attention and working memory performance in C57BL/6 mice.

The neurotoxicity induced by PM2.5 might be strongly related to changes of the hippocampal tissue structure and neurotransmitter levels

“…OFT are two commonly used detection methods. 30 The present study showed that the experimental rats exposed to PM 2.5 displayed significantly decreased space cognitive and exploratory behavior abilities in the new environment. PM 2.5 exposure may lead to a decline in the function of learning and memory in rats.…”

Early postnatal vocalizations predict sociability and spatial memory in C57BL/6J mice: Individual differences in behavioral traits emerge early in development

“…Recently, cognitive traits of inbred animal models have been used to understand “personality” at the biological level [ 4 ]. For instance, a specific link has been revealed between working memory and sensorimotor gating in inbred C57BL/6NCrl mice [ 5 ], which has not been reproduced in another study [ 6 ]. These rodent studies demonstrate that some behavioral traits are significantly associated in adulthood.…”

High visual perceptual load reduces prepulse inhibition induced by task-unrelated and task-related sound.

“…We noticed that participants needed to remember different numbers of features in different visual search conditions, resulting in differences in WM load between the conditions. A significant correlation between PPI and WM has been reported, showing that higher PPI can predict better performance on WM tasks (Peleg-Raibstein et al, 2015;Singer et al, 2013). However, this association has not been consistently observed across all PPI tests (Csomor et al, 2008).…”