Chronic Stress Shifts Effort-Related Choice Behavior in a Y-Maze Barrier Task in Mice.

ABSTRACT: Mood disorders, including major depressive disorder, can be precipitated by chronic stress. The Y-maze barrier task is an effort-related choice test that measures motivation to expend effort and obtain reward. In mice, chronic stress exposure significantly impacts motivation to work for a higher value reward when a lesser value reward is freely available compared to unstressed mice. Here we describe the chronic corticosterone administration paradigm, which produces a shift in effortful responding in the Y-maze barrier task. In the Y-maze task, one arm contains 4 food pellets, while the other arm contains only 2 pellets. After mice learn to select the high reward arm, barriers with progressively increasing height are then introduced into the high reward arm over multiple test sessions. Unfo

SUBMITTER: Dieterich A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7646533 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature