Stress and estrous cycle affect strategy but not performance of female C57BL/6J mice

Horst, Judith P. ter; Kentrop, Jiska; Kloet, E. Ronald de; Oitzl, Melly S.

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2012.11.040

Cited by 26 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…We observed increased perseveration (visiting the same holes repeatedly) of male and female MR CaMKCre mice on the spatial task of the circular hole board (ter Horst et al, 2012b, 2013b). Furthermore, MR CaMKCre mice made more re-entry errors on the radial arm maze, especially female mice (Berger et al, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…To take the estrous cycle into account we used twice the amount of females than males. To test for the estrous cycle: smears were taken after the social approach (ter Horst et al, 2013b). The mouse was placed on top of its cage, lifted slightly by its tail and the head of the smear loop (size 1 μl; Greiner Bio-one) was gently inserted above the major labia in the cloaca and carefully rubbed along the ventral/rostral side of the cloaca.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Deletion of the forebrain mineralocorticoid receptor impairs social discrimination and decision-making in male, but not in female mice

Horst

Mark

Kentrop

et al. 2014

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Social interaction with unknown individuals requires fast processing of information to decide whether it is friend or foe. This process of discrimination and decision-making is stressful and triggers secretion of corticosterone activating mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and glucocorticoid receptor (GR). The MR is involved in appraisal of novel experiences and risk assessment. Recently, we have demonstrated in a dual-solution memory task that MR plays a role in the early stage of information processing and decision-making. Here we examined social approach and social discrimination in male and female mice lacking MR from hippocampal-amygdala-prefrontal circuitry and controls. The social approach task allows the assessment of time spent with an unfamiliar mouse and the ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics. The male and female test mice were both more interested in the social than the non-social experience and deletion of their limbic MR increased the time spent with an unfamiliar mouse. Unlike controls, the male MRCaMKCre mice were not able to discriminate between an unfamiliar and the familiar mouse. However, the female MR mutant had retained the discriminative ability between unfamiliar and familiar mice. Administration of the MR antagonist RU28318 to male mice supported the role of the MR in the discrimination between an unfamiliar mouse and a non-social stimulus. No effect was found with a GR antagonist. Our findings suggest that MR is involved in sociability and social discrimination in a sex-specific manner through inhibitory control exerted putatively via limbic-hippocampal efferents. The ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics is of uttermost importance for territorial defense and depends on a role of MR in decision-making.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deletion of the forebrain mineralocorticoid receptor impairs social discrimination and decision-making in male, but not in female mice

Horst

Mark

Kentrop

et al. 2014

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It has been suggested that the persistent activity in, for instance, the anterior cingulate cortex following a stressful experience in women may be associated with the development of depressive symptoms in women related to tendencies of ruminative thinking. The menstrual cycle has a strong effect on the outcome of stress-related changes in neuronal activity (Goldstein et al, 2010; Ter Horst et al, 2013). At present changes in neuronal activity in women are less clear and straightforward than in men.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits

Bos

Taris

Scheppink

et al. 2014

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Recent laboratory studies have shown that men display more risk-taking behavior in decision-making tasks following stress, whilst women are more risk-aversive or become more task-focused. In addition, these studies have shown that sex differences are related to levels of the stress hormone cortisol (indicative of activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical-axis): the higher the levels of cortisol the more risk-taking behavior is shown by men, whereas women generally display more risk-aversive or task-focused behavior following higher levels of cortisol. Here, we assessed whether such relationships hold outside the laboratory, correlating levels of cortisol obtained during a job-related assessment procedure with decision-making parameters in the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) in male and female police recruits. The CGT allows for discriminating different aspects of reward-based decision-making. In addition, we correlated levels of alpha-amylase [indicative of activation of the sympatho-adrenomedullary-axis (SAM)] and decision-making parameters. In line with earlier studies men and women only differed in risk-adjustment in the CGT. Salivary cortisol levels correlated positively and strongly with risk-taking measures in men, which was significantly different from the weak negative correlation in women. In contrast, and less strongly so, salivary alpha-amylase levels correlated positively with risk-taking in women, which was significantly different from the weak negative correlation with risk-taking in men. Collectively, these data support and extend data of earlier studies indicating that risky decision-making in men and women is differently affected by stress hormones. The data are briefly discussed in relation to the effects of stress on gambling.

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“…In addition to the overall sex-dependent differences, the phase of the estrous cycle may influence the behavior of female mice [19], [20], [34]. Recently we reported a specific interaction between MR and female sex hormones [19].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mineralocorticoid Receptors Guide Spatial and Stimulus-Response Learning in Mice

et al. 2014

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Adrenal corticosteroid hormones act via mineralocorticoid (MR) and glucocorticoid receptors (GR) in the brain, influencing learning and memory. MRs have been implicated in the initial behavioral response in novel situations, which includes behavioral strategies in learning tasks. Different strategies can be used to solve navigational tasks, for example hippocampus-dependent spatial or striatum-dependent stimulus-response strategies. Previous studies suggested that MRs are involved in spatial learning and induce a shift between learning strategies when animals are allowed a choice between both strategies. In the present study, we further explored the role of MRs in spatial and stimulus-response learning in two separate circular holeboard tasks using female mice with forebrain-specific MR deficiency and MR overexpression and their wildtype control littermates. In addition, we studied sex-specific effects using male and female MR-deficient mice. First, we found that MR-deficient compared to control littermates and MR-overexpressing mice display altered exploratory and searching behavior indicative of impaired acquisition of novel information. Second, female (but not male) MR-deficient mice were impaired in the spatial task, while MR-overexpressing female mice showed improved performance in the spatial task. Third, MR-deficient mice were also impaired in the stimulus-response task compared to controls and (in the case of females) MR-overexpressing mice. We conclude that MRs are important for coordinating the processing of information relevant for spatial as well as stimulus-response learning.

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Stress and estrous cycle affect strategy but not performance of female C57BL/6J mice

Abstract: Stress and estrous cycle affect strategy but not performance of female C57BL/6J mice ter Horst, J.P.F.; Kentrop, J.; de Kloet, E.R.; Oitzl, M.S.

Cited by 26 publications

References 42 publications

Deletion of the forebrain mineralocorticoid receptor impairs social discrimination and decision-making in male, but not in female mice

Deletion of the forebrain mineralocorticoid receptor impairs social discrimination and decision-making in male, but not in female mice

Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits

Mineralocorticoid Receptors Guide Spatial and Stimulus-Response Learning in Mice

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