Abstract
Early parental nutritional interventions during prenatal development have been shown to result in neuropsychiatric sequelae in the adult offspring. In order to understand the impact of such nutritional interventions, the behavior of the animal has to be carefully analyzed. This chapter provides a step-by-step guide to conduct behavioral tests in adult mice for investigators without specific expertise or those without the equipment to carry out behavioral studies. We focus on tests tapping into the main behavioral abnormalities that correspond to mental illnesses. We describe the materials required and the detailed methods to conduct global assessment of parameters such as behavioral integrity and general well-being, psychomotor activity, social behavior, repetitive behavior, anxiety-like behavior, depression-like behavior, short-term spatial working memory, and spatial reference memory.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Langley-Evans SC (2015) Nutrition in early life and the programming of adult disease: a review. J Hum Nutr Diet 28(Suppl 1):1–14
Rando OJ, Simmons RA (2015) I’m eating for two: parental dietary effects on offspring metabolism. Cell 161:93–105
Ong TP, Ozanne SE (2015) Developmental programming of type 2 diabetes: early nutrition and epigenetic mechanisms. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 18:354–360
Baskin R, Hill B, Jacka FN, O’Neil A, Skouteris H (2015) The association between diet quality and mental health during the perinatal period. A systematic review. Appetite 91:41–47
Emmett PM, Jones LR, Golding J (2015) Pregnancy diet and associated outcomes in the Avon longitudinal study of parents and children. Nutr Rev 73(Suppl 3):154–174
Faa G, Manchia M, Pintus R, Gerosa C, Marcialis MA, Fanos V (2016) Fetal programming of neuropsychiatric disorders. Birth Defects Res C Embryo Today 108:207–223
Morgese MG, Trabace L (2016) Maternal malnutrition in the etiopathogenesis of psychiatric diseases: role of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Brain Sci 6(3): pii: E24. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci6030024
Lynch CB (1994) Evolutionary inferences from genetic analyses of cold adaptation in laboratory and wild populations of the house mouse. In: Boake CRB (ed) Quantitative genetic studies of behavioral evolution, 2nd edn. University Of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN-10: 0226062163
Deacon RM (2006) Assessing nest building in mice. Nat Protoc 1:1117–1119
Goto T, Okayama T, Toyoda A (2015) Strain differences in temporal changes of nesting behaviors in C57BL/6N, DBA/2N, and their F1 hybrid mice assessed by a three-dimensional monitoring system. Behav Process 119:86–92
Chiu HY, Chan MH, Lee MY, Chen ST, Zhan ZY, Chen HH (2014) Long-lasting alterations in 5-HT2A receptor after a binge regimen of methamphetamine in mice. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 17:1647–1658
Deacon RM, Croucher A, Rawlins JN (2002) Hippocampal cytotoxic lesion effects on species-typical behaviours in mice. Behav Brain Res 132:203–213
Prut L, Belzung C (2003) The open field as a paradigm to measure the effects of drugs on anxiety-like behaviors: a review. Eur J Pharmacol 463:3–33
Kalueff AV, Tuohimaa P (2004) Grooming analysis algorithm for neurobehavioural stress research. Brain Res Brain Res Protoc 13:151–158
Dunn AJ, Berridge CW, Lai YI, Yachabach TL (1987) CRF-induced excessive grooming behavior in rats and mice. Peptides 8:841–844
Crawley JN (1985) Exploratory behavior models of anxiety in mice. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 9:37–44
Bale TL, Contarino A, Smith GW, Chan R, Gold LH, Sawchenko PE et al (2000) Mice deficient for corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor-2 display anxiety-like behaviour and are hypersensitive to stress. Nat Genet 24:410–414
Thomas A, Burant A, Bui N, Graham D, Yuva-Paylor LA, Paylor R (2009) Marble burying reflects a repetitive and perseverative behavior more than novelty-induced anxiety. Psychopharmacology 204:361–373
Malkova NV, CZ Y, Hsiao EY, Moore MJ, Patterson PH (2012) Maternal immune activation yields offspring displaying mouse versions of the three core symptoms of autism. Brain Behav Immun 26:607–616
File SE (1987) The contribution of behavioural studies to the neuropharmacology of anxiety. Neuropharmacology 26:877–886
Porsolt RD, Bertin A, Jalfre M (1978) “Behavioural despair” in rats and mice: strain differences and the effects of imipramine. Eur J Pharmacol 51:291–294
Swonger AK, Rech RH (1972) Serotonergic and cholinergic involvement in habituation of activity and spontaneous alternation of rats in a Y maze. J Comp Physiol Psychol 81:509–522
Drew WG, Miller LL, Baugh EL (1073) Effects of delta9-THC, LSD-25 and scopolamine on continuous, spontaneous alternation in the Y-maze. Psychopharmacologia 32:171–182
Sarnyai Z, Sibille EL, Pavlides C, Fenster RJ, McEwen BS, Toth MC (2000) Impaired hippocampal-dependent learning and functional abnormalities in the hippocampus in mice lacking serotonin(1A) receptors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 97:14731–14736
Conrad D, Lupien SJ, Thanasoulis LC, McEwen BS (1997) The effects of type I and type II corticosteroid receptor agonists on exploratory behavior and spatial memory in the Y-maze. Brain Res 759:76–83
Conrad CD, Galea LA, Kuroda Y, McEwen BS (1996) Behav Neurosci 110:1321–1334
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Kraeuter, AK., Guest, P.C., Sarnyai, Z. (2018). Neuropsychiatric Sequelae of Early Nutritional Modifications: A Beginner’s Guide to Behavioral Analysis. In: Guest, P. (eds) Investigations of Early Nutrition Effects on Long-Term Health. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1735. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7614-0_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7614-0_28
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-7613-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-7614-0
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols