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Full-Text Articles in Behavioral Neurobiology

Outclimbing Cognitive Decline: Age, Western Diet, Resistance Exercise, And The Brain., Leila Dzinic Feb 2024

Outclimbing Cognitive Decline: Age, Western Diet, Resistance Exercise, And The Brain., Leila Dzinic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Increased age and obesity diminish motivation, perseverance, and spatial memory function. Aerobic exercise interventions have successfully rescued some of these processes. However, in older and heavier populations aerobic exercise is not as sustainable due to high risk of injury. Resistance exercise consists of physical activity where maximum oxygen consumption is not increased and has been proposed as a safe and effective intervention for this population. Here, we used touchscreen-based cognitive testing to elucidate the influence of resistance exercise on motivation and spatial memory in aged, diet-induced obese mice, using a water restriction procedure I develop in Chapter 2. Mice underwent …


Effort-Related Motivational Dysfunctions: Behavioral And Neurochemical Studies Of The Wistar-Kyoto Rat Model Of Depression, Brendan Abbott Jul 2018

Effort-Related Motivational Dysfunctions: Behavioral And Neurochemical Studies Of The Wistar-Kyoto Rat Model Of Depression, Brendan Abbott

Masters Theses

Depression and related disorders are characterized by motivational dysfunctions, including deficits in behavioral activation and exertion of effort. Animal models of relevance to depression represent a critical starting point in elucidating the neurobiological mechanisms underlying motivational dysfunctions. The present study explored the use of the Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) animal model of depression to examine effort-related functions as measured by voluntary wheel running and performance on a mixed fixed ratio 5/progressive ratio (FR5/PR) operant task. Given the known link between activational aspects of motivation and the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) system, the behavioral effects of d-amphetamine (0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg, IP), a psychostimulant …


Diet-Induced Obesity: Dopaminergic And Behavioral Mechanisms As Outcomes And Predictors, Vidya Narayanaswami Jan 2013

Diet-Induced Obesity: Dopaminergic And Behavioral Mechanisms As Outcomes And Predictors, Vidya Narayanaswami

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacy

Obesity and drug abuse share common neural circuitries including the mesocoticolimbic and striatal dopamine reward system. In the current study, a rat model of diet-induced obesity (DIO) was used to determine striatal dopamine function, impulsivity and motivation as neurobehavioral outcomes and predictors of obesity. For the outcome study, rats were randomly assigned a high-fat (HF) or a low-fat (LF) diet for 8 wk. Following the 8-wk HF-diet exposure, rats were segregated into obesity-prone and obesity-resistant groups based on maximum and minimum body weight gain, respectively, and neurobehavioral outcomes were evaluated. For the predictor study, neurobehavioral antecedents were evaluated prior to …


Sensory Modulation Of Juvenile Play In Rats, Stephen M. Siviy, Jaak Panksepp Jan 1987

Sensory Modulation Of Juvenile Play In Rats, Stephen M. Siviy, Jaak Panksepp

Psychology Faculty Publications

A series of experiments was conducted to determine the extent to which somatosensory stimulation is necessary for the elaboration of juvenile play in rats. Anesthetization of the dorsal body surface of juvenile rats with xylocaine reduced the frequency of pinning, an indicator variable for play, by 35% to 70%, while motivation to play, measured by dorsal contacts, an index of play solicitation, remained largely intact. These data suggest that dorsal body surface anesthetization impairs the ability of juvenile rats to perceive and/or respond to playful gestures. When untreated animals were paired with xylocaine-treated animals, the xylocaine-treated animals consistently pinned the …