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Allan V Kalueff - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Alterations in grooming activity and syntax in heterozygous SERT and BDNF knockout mice: The utility of behavior-recognition tools to characterize mutant mouse phenotypes
Brain Research Bulletin, 2015Co-Authors: Evan J Kyzar, Mimi Pham, Andrew Roth, Jonathan Cachat, Jeremy Green, Siddharth Gaikwad, Allan V KalueffAbstract:a b s t r a c t Serotonin transporter (SERT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are key modulators of molec- ular signaling, cognition and behavior. Although SERT and BDNF mutant mouse phenotypes have been extensively characterized, little is known about their self-grooming behavior. Grooming represents an important behavioral domain sensitive to environmental stimuli and is increasingly used as a model for repetitive behavioral syndromes, such as autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The present study used heterozygous ( +/− ) SERT and BDNF male mutant mice on a C57BL/6J background and assessed their spontaneous self-grooming behavior applying both manual and automated techniques. Overall, SERT +/− mice displayed a general increase in grooming behavior, as indicated by more grooming bouts and more transitions between specific grooming stages. SERT +/− mice also aborted more grooming bouts,
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Alterations in grooming activity and syntax in heterozygous SERT and BDNF knockout mice: the utility of behavior-recognition tools to characterize mutant mouse phenotypes.
Brain research bulletin, 2012Co-Authors: Evan J Kyzar, Mimi Pham, Andrew Roth, Jonathan Cachat, Jeremy Green, Siddharth Gaikwad, Allan V KalueffAbstract:Serotonin transporter (SERT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are key modulators of molecular signaling, cognition and behavior. Although SERT and BDNF mutant mouse phenotypes have been extensively characterized, little is known about their self-grooming behavior. Grooming represents an important behavioral domain sensitive to environmental stimuli and is increasingly used as a model for repetitive behavioral syndromes, such as autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The present study used heterozygous ((+/-)) SERT and BDNF male mutant mice on a C57BL/6J background and assessed their spontaneous self-grooming behavior applying both manual and automated techniques. Overall, SERT(+/-) mice displayed a general increase in grooming behavior, as indicated by more grooming bouts and more transitions between specific grooming stages. SERT(+/-) mice also aborted more grooming bouts, but showed generally unaltered activity levels in the observation chamber. In contrast, BDNF(+/-) mice displayed a global reduction in grooming activity, with fewer bouts and transitions between specific grooming stages, altered grooming syntax, as well as hypolocomotion and increased turning behavior. Finally, grooming data collected by manual and automated methods (HomeCageScan) significantly correlated in our experiments, confirming the utility of automated high-throughput quantification of grooming behaviors in various genetic mouse models with increased or decreased grooming phenotypes. Taken together, these findings indicate that mouse self-grooming behavior is a reliable behavioral biomarker of genetic deficits in SERT and BDNF pathways, and can be reliably measured using automated behavior-recognition technology.
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the grooming analysis algorithm discriminates between different levels of anxiety in rats potential utility for neurobehavioural stress research
Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2005Co-Authors: Allan V Kalueff, Pentti TuohimaaAbstract:Stress has long been known to affect grooming in rodent species, altering both its activity measures and behavioural microstructure. Since stress disturbs a general pattern of self-grooming uninterrupted cephalocaudal progression, the grooming analysis algorithm (Kalueff and Tuohimaa, Brain Res. Protocols, 2004; 15: 151-8) was previously designed for mice to enable the detection of stress by measuring alterations in grooming microstructure in different test situations. Since mice and rats are known to differ in their behaviours, including grooming, the aim of the current study was to test our approach in rats and evaluate the utility of this method for differentiation between high- and low-stress situations. For this, we have developed the rat grooming analysis algorithm (based on ethological analysis of incorrect transitions contrary to the cephalocaudal rule, interrupted grooming activity and the assessment of the regional distribution of grooming) and applied this algorithm to the light-exposed (high stress) and dark-exposed (low stress) groups of rats. Here, we show that the percentage of 'incorrect' transitions between different grooming patterns, the percentage of interrupted grooming bouts and altered regional distribution of grooming (less caudal grooming, more rostral grooming) may be used as behavioural markers of stress in rats. Our results suggest that this method can be a useful tool in neurobehavioural stress research including modelling stress-evoked states, psychopharmacological or behavioural neurogenetics research in rats.
Evan J Kyzar - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Alterations in grooming activity and syntax in heterozygous SERT and BDNF knockout mice: The utility of behavior-recognition tools to characterize mutant mouse phenotypes
Brain Research Bulletin, 2015Co-Authors: Evan J Kyzar, Mimi Pham, Andrew Roth, Jonathan Cachat, Jeremy Green, Siddharth Gaikwad, Allan V KalueffAbstract:a b s t r a c t Serotonin transporter (SERT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are key modulators of molec- ular signaling, cognition and behavior. Although SERT and BDNF mutant mouse phenotypes have been extensively characterized, little is known about their self-grooming behavior. Grooming represents an important behavioral domain sensitive to environmental stimuli and is increasingly used as a model for repetitive behavioral syndromes, such as autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The present study used heterozygous ( +/− ) SERT and BDNF male mutant mice on a C57BL/6J background and assessed their spontaneous self-grooming behavior applying both manual and automated techniques. Overall, SERT +/− mice displayed a general increase in grooming behavior, as indicated by more grooming bouts and more transitions between specific grooming stages. SERT +/− mice also aborted more grooming bouts,
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Alterations in grooming activity and syntax in heterozygous SERT and BDNF knockout mice: the utility of behavior-recognition tools to characterize mutant mouse phenotypes.
Brain research bulletin, 2012Co-Authors: Evan J Kyzar, Mimi Pham, Andrew Roth, Jonathan Cachat, Jeremy Green, Siddharth Gaikwad, Allan V KalueffAbstract:Serotonin transporter (SERT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are key modulators of molecular signaling, cognition and behavior. Although SERT and BDNF mutant mouse phenotypes have been extensively characterized, little is known about their self-grooming behavior. Grooming represents an important behavioral domain sensitive to environmental stimuli and is increasingly used as a model for repetitive behavioral syndromes, such as autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The present study used heterozygous ((+/-)) SERT and BDNF male mutant mice on a C57BL/6J background and assessed their spontaneous self-grooming behavior applying both manual and automated techniques. Overall, SERT(+/-) mice displayed a general increase in grooming behavior, as indicated by more grooming bouts and more transitions between specific grooming stages. SERT(+/-) mice also aborted more grooming bouts, but showed generally unaltered activity levels in the observation chamber. In contrast, BDNF(+/-) mice displayed a global reduction in grooming activity, with fewer bouts and transitions between specific grooming stages, altered grooming syntax, as well as hypolocomotion and increased turning behavior. Finally, grooming data collected by manual and automated methods (HomeCageScan) significantly correlated in our experiments, confirming the utility of automated high-throughput quantification of grooming behaviors in various genetic mouse models with increased or decreased grooming phenotypes. Taken together, these findings indicate that mouse self-grooming behavior is a reliable behavioral biomarker of genetic deficits in SERT and BDNF pathways, and can be reliably measured using automated behavior-recognition technology.
Michael S. Mooring - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Grooming in desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana) and the ghost of parasites past
Behavioral Ecology, 2006Co-Authors: Michael S. Mooring, Benjamin L. Hart, Thomas A. Fitzpatrick, Dominic D. Reisig, Tara T. Nishihira, Ian C. Fraser, Jill E. BenjaminAbstract:Ectoparasites such as ticks have a negative effect on host fitness, whereas parasite-defense grooming is effective in removing ticks. The central control (programmed grooming) model proposes that animals engage in preventive tick-defense grooming in response to an internal timing mechanism, even in the absence of peripheral stimulation from parasites. This model predicts that smaller animals will groom more frequently than larger ones because of the higher cost of parasitism for a small animal (body size principle). The peripheral stimulation (stimulus driven) model predicts no size-related differences in grooming rate in the absence of tick bite irritation. We observed grooming behavior in a Chihuahuan desert population of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana), where ticks have been absent for perhaps thousands of years. Although not exposed to ticks, bighorns self groomed by means of oral and scratch grooming, albeit at very low rates compared to size-matched ungulates in both tick-infested and tick-free environments. Logistic regression and general linear models revealed both the probability that grooming was performed during a 10-min focal sample and the rate of grooming when it occurred was greater for younger, smaller age/sex categories of less body mass. Oral and scratch grooming were negatively associated with body mass during both years, with juveniles (X e 15 kg) grooming the most frequently and the oldest males (X e 70--85 kg) grooming the least. Assuming that programmed grooming evolved in a tick-infested environment, the current grooming behavior of this population is a relict of their ancestral environment, an adaptation to the "ghost of parasites past." Copyright 2006.
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the evolution of parasite defence grooming in ungulates
Biological Journal of The Linnean Society, 2004Co-Authors: Michael S. Mooring, Daniel T Blumstein, Chantal StonerAbstract:Grooming repertoires are exhibited by all terrestrial mammals, and removal of ectoparasites is an important ances- tral and current function. Parasite-defence grooming is regulated both by a central control mechanism (programmed grooming model) and by cutaneous stimulation from bites (stimulus-driven model). To study the evolution of para- site-defence grooming in ungulates, we compared species-typical grooming behaviour with host morphology and hab- itat to test predictions of the programmed grooming model while taking into account phylogenetic relatedness. We observed grooming in 60 ungulate species at ectoparasite-free zoological parks in which the confound of differential tick exposure was controlled for and stimulus-driven grooming was ruled out. Concentrated-changes tests indicated that sexually dimorphic grooming (in which breeding males groom less than females) has coevolved with sexual body size dimorphism, suggesting that intrasexual selection has favoured reduced grooming that enhances vigilance of males for oestrous females and rival males. Concentrated-changes tests also revealed that the evolution of complex oral grooming (involving alternate use of both teeth and tongue) and adult allogrooming (whereby conspecifics oral groom body regions not accessible by self grooming) was concentrated in lineages inhabiting closed woodland or for- est habitat associated with increased tick exposure, with such advanced grooming being most concentrated in Cervidae. Regression analyses of independent contrasts indicated that both host body size and habitat play a role in the evolution of species-typical oral grooming rates, as previously reported. These results indicate that the observed grooming represents centrally driven grooming patterns favoured by natural selection in each lineage. This is the first phylogenetically controlled comparative study to report the evolution of parasite-defence grooming behaviours in response to selection pressures predicted by the programmed grooming hypothesis. © 2004 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2004, 81, 17-37. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: body size - habitat - parasites - programmed grooming - sexual size dimorphism - ticks - vigilance.
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Grooming in impala: Role of oral grooming in removal of ticks and effects of ticks in increasing grooming rate
Physiology & Behavior, 1996Co-Authors: Michael S. Mooring, Andrew A. Mckenzie, Benjamin L. HartAbstract:Abstract In Experiment 1, five adult female impala were fitted with harnesses that restrained oral self-grooming of the anterior part of the body. At the same time, six cohoused female impala were fitted with control harnesses that allowed normal oral grooming. The impala were allowed to habituate to the harnesses for 10 days, and both groups were then exposed to larval ticks ( Boophilus decoloratus ) by herding them into a tick-seeding corral. During the third week following tick seeding, when female ticks were estimated to have developed into engorging adults, the impala were immobilized, tick numbers on the animals sampled by patch sampling, and the hardness removed. Observations continued for 5 days following removal of the harnesses. Twenty-minute focal observations were conducted daily on each impala during the habituation, tick-seeded, and postharness phases. Restrained impala had a median of 20 times more adult female ticks (both engorged and unengorged) than control impala. Oral grooming, which had been suppressed in the restrained impala duting habituation and tick-seeded phases, increased 10-fold once the harnesses were removed and occurred 2.5 times more frequently than in control impala during the postharness phase. In Experiment 2, 15 adult female impala were seeded with larval ticks as in Experiment 1; in week 3 after tick seeding all ticks were removed from animals by application of an acaricide. Grooming was recorded during 3 weeks of baseline observations prior to tick seeding, 3 weeks after tick seeding, and then for 3 weeks beginning 1 week after acaricide treatment. Oral grooming and scratch grooming significantly increased from baseline during tick seeding and significantly declined following removal of the ticks with acaracide. Taken together, the two experiments demonstrate that oral grooming is very effective and important in removing fitness-compromising ticks in free-ranging impala. Correspondingly, exposure to, and subsequent infestation by, ticks increases the rate of grooming.
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Grooming in impala: role of oral grooming in removal of ticks and effects of ticks in increasing grooming rate.
Physiology & Behavior, 1996Co-Authors: Michael S. Mooring, Andrew A. Mckenzie, Benjamin L. HartAbstract:In Experiment 1, five adult female impala were fitted with harnesses that restrained oral self-grooming of the anterior part of the body. At the same time, six cohoused female impala were fitted with control harnesses that allowed normal oral grooming. The impala were allowed to habituate to the harnesses for 10 days, and both groups were then exposed to larval ticks (Boophilus decoloratus) by herding them into a tick-seeding corral. During the third week following tick seeding, when female ticks were estimated to have developed into engorging adults, the impala were immobilized, tick numbers on the animals sampled by patch sampling, and the harnesses removed. Observations continued for 5 days following removal of the harnesses. Twenty-minute focal observations were conducted daily on each impala during the habituation, tick-seeded, and postharness phases. Restrained impala had a median of 20 times more adult female ticks (both engorged and unengorged) than control impala. Oral grooming, which had been suppressed in the restrained impala during habituation and tick-seeded phases, increased 10-fold once the harnesses were removed and occurred 2.5 times more frequently than in control impala during the postharness phase. In Experiment 2, 15 adult female impala were seeded with larval ticks as in Experiment 1; in week 3 after tick seeding all ticks were removed from animals by application of an acaricide. Grooming was recorded during 3 weeks of baseline observations prior to tick seeding, 3 weeks after tick seeding, and then for 3 weeks beginning 1 week after acaricide treatment. Oral grooming and scratch grooming significantly increased from baseline during tick seeding and significantly declined following removal of the ticks with acaracide. Taken together, the two experiments demonstrate that oral grooming is very effective and important in removing fitness-compromising ticks in free-ranging impala. Correspondingly, exposure to, and subsequent infestation by, ticks increases the rate of grooming.
Siddharth Gaikwad - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Alterations in grooming activity and syntax in heterozygous SERT and BDNF knockout mice: The utility of behavior-recognition tools to characterize mutant mouse phenotypes
Brain Research Bulletin, 2015Co-Authors: Evan J Kyzar, Mimi Pham, Andrew Roth, Jonathan Cachat, Jeremy Green, Siddharth Gaikwad, Allan V KalueffAbstract:a b s t r a c t Serotonin transporter (SERT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are key modulators of molec- ular signaling, cognition and behavior. Although SERT and BDNF mutant mouse phenotypes have been extensively characterized, little is known about their self-grooming behavior. Grooming represents an important behavioral domain sensitive to environmental stimuli and is increasingly used as a model for repetitive behavioral syndromes, such as autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The present study used heterozygous ( +/− ) SERT and BDNF male mutant mice on a C57BL/6J background and assessed their spontaneous self-grooming behavior applying both manual and automated techniques. Overall, SERT +/− mice displayed a general increase in grooming behavior, as indicated by more grooming bouts and more transitions between specific grooming stages. SERT +/− mice also aborted more grooming bouts,
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Alterations in grooming activity and syntax in heterozygous SERT and BDNF knockout mice: the utility of behavior-recognition tools to characterize mutant mouse phenotypes.
Brain research bulletin, 2012Co-Authors: Evan J Kyzar, Mimi Pham, Andrew Roth, Jonathan Cachat, Jeremy Green, Siddharth Gaikwad, Allan V KalueffAbstract:Serotonin transporter (SERT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are key modulators of molecular signaling, cognition and behavior. Although SERT and BDNF mutant mouse phenotypes have been extensively characterized, little is known about their self-grooming behavior. Grooming represents an important behavioral domain sensitive to environmental stimuli and is increasingly used as a model for repetitive behavioral syndromes, such as autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The present study used heterozygous ((+/-)) SERT and BDNF male mutant mice on a C57BL/6J background and assessed their spontaneous self-grooming behavior applying both manual and automated techniques. Overall, SERT(+/-) mice displayed a general increase in grooming behavior, as indicated by more grooming bouts and more transitions between specific grooming stages. SERT(+/-) mice also aborted more grooming bouts, but showed generally unaltered activity levels in the observation chamber. In contrast, BDNF(+/-) mice displayed a global reduction in grooming activity, with fewer bouts and transitions between specific grooming stages, altered grooming syntax, as well as hypolocomotion and increased turning behavior. Finally, grooming data collected by manual and automated methods (HomeCageScan) significantly correlated in our experiments, confirming the utility of automated high-throughput quantification of grooming behaviors in various genetic mouse models with increased or decreased grooming phenotypes. Taken together, these findings indicate that mouse self-grooming behavior is a reliable behavioral biomarker of genetic deficits in SERT and BDNF pathways, and can be reliably measured using automated behavior-recognition technology.
Jeremy Green - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Alterations in grooming activity and syntax in heterozygous SERT and BDNF knockout mice: The utility of behavior-recognition tools to characterize mutant mouse phenotypes
Brain Research Bulletin, 2015Co-Authors: Evan J Kyzar, Mimi Pham, Andrew Roth, Jonathan Cachat, Jeremy Green, Siddharth Gaikwad, Allan V KalueffAbstract:a b s t r a c t Serotonin transporter (SERT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are key modulators of molec- ular signaling, cognition and behavior. Although SERT and BDNF mutant mouse phenotypes have been extensively characterized, little is known about their self-grooming behavior. Grooming represents an important behavioral domain sensitive to environmental stimuli and is increasingly used as a model for repetitive behavioral syndromes, such as autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The present study used heterozygous ( +/− ) SERT and BDNF male mutant mice on a C57BL/6J background and assessed their spontaneous self-grooming behavior applying both manual and automated techniques. Overall, SERT +/− mice displayed a general increase in grooming behavior, as indicated by more grooming bouts and more transitions between specific grooming stages. SERT +/− mice also aborted more grooming bouts,
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Alterations in grooming activity and syntax in heterozygous SERT and BDNF knockout mice: the utility of behavior-recognition tools to characterize mutant mouse phenotypes.
Brain research bulletin, 2012Co-Authors: Evan J Kyzar, Mimi Pham, Andrew Roth, Jonathan Cachat, Jeremy Green, Siddharth Gaikwad, Allan V KalueffAbstract:Serotonin transporter (SERT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are key modulators of molecular signaling, cognition and behavior. Although SERT and BDNF mutant mouse phenotypes have been extensively characterized, little is known about their self-grooming behavior. Grooming represents an important behavioral domain sensitive to environmental stimuli and is increasingly used as a model for repetitive behavioral syndromes, such as autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The present study used heterozygous ((+/-)) SERT and BDNF male mutant mice on a C57BL/6J background and assessed their spontaneous self-grooming behavior applying both manual and automated techniques. Overall, SERT(+/-) mice displayed a general increase in grooming behavior, as indicated by more grooming bouts and more transitions between specific grooming stages. SERT(+/-) mice also aborted more grooming bouts, but showed generally unaltered activity levels in the observation chamber. In contrast, BDNF(+/-) mice displayed a global reduction in grooming activity, with fewer bouts and transitions between specific grooming stages, altered grooming syntax, as well as hypolocomotion and increased turning behavior. Finally, grooming data collected by manual and automated methods (HomeCageScan) significantly correlated in our experiments, confirming the utility of automated high-throughput quantification of grooming behaviors in various genetic mouse models with increased or decreased grooming phenotypes. Taken together, these findings indicate that mouse self-grooming behavior is a reliable behavioral biomarker of genetic deficits in SERT and BDNF pathways, and can be reliably measured using automated behavior-recognition technology.
