Abstract
A genetic analysis of spontaneous alternation behaviour using two 6×6 diallel matrices of mice reared under either enriched or standard cage conditions indicated (1) a high degree of directional dominance toward increased alternation rates, (2) no overall effect of early enrichment on alternation, (3) an increase in alternation due to early enrichment only among hybrids with one DBA/1J parent. These results, when examined in conjunction with an earlier genetic study, indicated that the pattern observed in alternation was similar to that for emotional reactivity to experimenter handling, suggesting either pleiotropic gene effects or that the alternation scores obtained were artifacts of genetically influenced fear responses. A second experiment, testing 3 strains under bright and dim illumination supported the hypothesis that fear can suppress alternation in mice, although one strain showed consistently low alternation in both test conditions. The importance of systematic sampling of genotypes, environments, and test parameters is stressed.
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This research was supported by grants GB-5544 and GB-8030 from the National Science Foundation.
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Henderson, N.D. A genetic analysis of spontaneous alternation in mice. Behav Genet 1, 125–132 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01071828
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01071828