Dataset Information

Further investigation of phenotypes and confounding factors of progressive ratio performance and feeding behavior in the BACHD rat model of Huntington disease.

ABSTRACT: Huntington disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor, cognitive, psychiatric and metabolic symptoms. We recently published a study describing that the BACHD rat model of HD shows an obesity phenotype, which might affect their motivation to perform food-based behavioral tests. Further, we argued that using a food restriction protocol based on matching BACHD and wild type rats' food consumption rates might resolve these motivational differences. In the current study, we followed up on these ideas in a longitudinal study of the rats' performance in a progressive ratio test. We also investigated the phenotype of reduced food consumption rate, which is typically seen in food-restricted BACHD rats, in greater detail. In line with our previous study, the BACHD rats were less motivated to perform the progressive ratio test compared to their wild type littermates, although the phenotype was no longer present when the rats' food consumption rates had been matched. However, video analysis of food consumption tests suggested that the reduced consumption rate found in the BACHD rats was not entirely based on differences in hunger, but likely involved motoric impairments. Thus, restriction protocols based on food consumption rates are not appropriate when working with BACHD rats. As an alternative, we suggest that studies where BACHD rats are used should investigate how the readouts of interest are affected by motivational differences, and use appropriate control tests to avoid misleading results. In addition, we show that BACHD rats display distinct behavioral changes in their progressive ratio performance, which might be indicative of striatal dysfunction.

SUBMITTER: Clemensson EK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5342229 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Further investigation of phenotypes and confounding factors of progressive ratio performance and feeding behavior in the BACHD rat model of Huntington disease.

Clemensson Erik Karl Håkan EK Clemensson Laura Emily LE Fabry Benedikt B Flunkert Stefanie S Riess Olaf O Riess Olaf O Wronski Robert R Nguyen Huu Phuc HP

PloS one 20170308 3

Huntington disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor, cognitive, psychiatric and metabolic symptoms. We recently published a study describing that the BACHD rat model of HD shows an obesity phenotype, which might affect their motivation to perform food-based behavioral tests. Further, we argued that using a food restriction protocol based on matching BACHD and wild type rats' food consumption rates might resolve these motivational differences. In the current study ...[more]

PMID: 28273120

Similar Datasets

Project description:Huntington disease (HD) is an autosomal dominantly inherited, progressive neurodegenerative disorder which is accompanied by executive dysfunctions and emotional alteration. The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of emotion/stress on on-going highly demanding cognitive tasks, i.e., temporal processing, as a function of age in BACHD rats (a "full length" model of HD). Middle-aged (4-6 months) and old (10-12 months) rats were first trained on a 2 vs. 8-s temporal discrimination task, and then exposed to a series of bisection tests under normal and stressful (10 mild unpredictable foot-shocks) conditions. The animals were then trained on a peak interval task, in which reinforced fixed-interval (FI) 30-s trials were randomly intermixed with non-reinforced probe trials. After training, the effect of stress upon time perception was again assessed. Sensitivity to foot-shocks was also assessed independently. The results show effects of both age and genotype, with largely greater effects in old BACHD animals. The older BACHD animals had impaired learning in both tasks, but reached equivalent levels of performance as WT animals at the end of training in the temporal discrimination task, while remaining impaired in the peak interval task. Whereas sensitivity to foot-shock did not differ between BACHD and WT rats, delivery of foot-shocks during the test sessions had a disruptive impact on temporal behavior in WT animals, an effect which increased with age. In contrast, BACHD rats, independent of age, did not show any significant disruption under stress. In conclusion, BACHD rats showed a disruption in temporal learning in late symptomatic animals. Age-related modification in stress-induced impairment of temporal control of behavior was also observed, an effect which was greatly reduced in BACHD animals, thus confirming previous results suggesting reduced emotional reactivity in HD animals. The results suggest a staggered onset in cognitive and emotional alterations in HD, with emotional alteration being the earliest, possibly related to different time courses of degeneration in cortico-striatal and amygdala circuits.

Dataset Information

Further investigation of phenotypes and confounding factors of progressive ratio performance and feeding behavior in the BACHD rat model of Huntington disease.

Publications

Further investigation of phenotypes and confounding factors of progressive ratio performance and feeding behavior in the BACHD rat model of Huntington disease.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets