Use of [14C]-2-deoxyglucose to detect regional brain activities associated with fearful behavior in wild Norway rats

Abstract

The 2-deoxyglucose method was used to compare regional brain activities of unrestrained wild Norway rats engaged in fear-based defensive behavior (n = 81, and that of solitary controls (n = 81. After infusion with 100 micrograms/kg of ('4CI-deoxyglucose via jugular catheters, experimental rats spent the 45-min uptake period in flight, boxing, and defensive attack to painless threat stimuli. Coronal sections of brains were exposed to X-ray film, and the resultant global maps of regional brain activity for the two groups were quantitated by high-resolution fiber optic densitometry at 86 cerebral points and analyzed statistically by computer. Significant group differences in regional brain glucose uptake were found at 16 loci. The considerable agreement between these structures and those previously identified in the literature as involved in defensive behavior provides evidence for the potential of this method of investigation of brain correlates of specific behavioral patterns.

Social Stress in Hamsters: Defeat Activates Specific Neurocircuits within the Brain

“…In mice, aggressive males show enhanced metabolic activity within the habenula and locus coeruleus and reduced levels in the septum and dorsal central gray when compared with defensive animals (Morton et al, 1984). In hamsters, comparison of the number of Fos-immunoreactive neurons in dominant and subordinate males revealed no significance differences (Kollack-Walker and Newman, 1995).…”

“…This is one of the first studies to demonstrate that social stress activates neurons within distinct neurocircuits throughout the brain (also see Morton et al, 1984). The resultant pattern of neuronal activity parallels, in large part, the induction of immediate early genes after a variety of acute, nonsocial stressors (for review, see Cullinan et al, 1995a, and their illustrations).…”

“…To date, only a limited number of studies have addressed the patterns of brain activity associated with aggressive encounters (Morton et al, 1984;Joppa et al, 1995;Kollack-Walker and Newman, 1995;Potegal et al, 1996a,b), with only two of these studies directly comparing the patterns of neuronal activity associated with winning or losing. In mice, aggressive males show enhanced metabolic activity within the habenula and locus coeruleus and reduced levels in the septum and dorsal central gray when compared with defensive animals (Morton et al, 1984).…”

Knowledge management of the neuroscientific literature: the data model and underlying strategy of the NeuroScholar system

“…Kollack-Walker et al 1997). Other topographical approaches involve the detection of changes in brain metabolism (Morton et al 1984), including modern scanning methods such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (f MRI), even though these methods are rarely used to study non-human animals. Electrophysiological recording experiments are often used to examine temporal aspects of neuronal activity and this may be directly correlated to behaviour with chronically implanted microelectrodes that may be recorded from an awake, behaving animal (e.g.…”