Association between exploratory activity and social individuality in genetically identical mice living in the same enriched environment

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

  • J. Freund - , Technische Universität Dresden (Autor:in)
  • A. M. Brandmaier - , Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Autor:in)
  • L. Lewejohann - , Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Universität Osnabrück (Autor:in)
  • I. Kirste - , Technische Universität Dresden, Duke University (Autor:in)
  • M. Kritzler - , Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Autor:in)
  • A. Krüger - , Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) (Autor:in)
  • N. Sachser - , Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Autor:in)
  • U. Lindenberger - , Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Autor:in)
  • G. Kempermann - , Professur für Regenerationsgenomik, Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen, Standort Dresden (Partner: DZNE der Helmholtzgemeinschaft) (Autor:in)

Abstract

We previously reported that inbred, genetically identical mice living in one enriched environment develop individual behavioral trajectories, indicating increasingly different levels of spatial exploratory behavior as quantified by roaming entropy. Cumulative roaming entropy (cRE) correlated positively with adult hippocampal neurogenesis, a type of plasticity involved in the flexible integration of new information into existing contexts (Freund et al., 2013). The study on which we report here was done in parallel to that first experiment, but here we acquired detailed observational data on the behavior of individual mice. Roaming entropy (RE) was again assessed in real-time with an antenna-based system over the entire experimental period of 3 months. Compared to the least active mice in the enclosure (low number of antenna contacts), the most active animals showed tendencies of increased socially interactive behavior in the final observation block whereas least active mice displayed more self-related behavior (non-social local exploration and play). When looking at roaming behavior, we discovered that RE correlated negatively with latent factors representing social exploratory and non-social exploratory and play behavior. Adult neurogenesis could not be studied in the present cohort but we do know that under identical conditions, cumulative RE correlated positively with adult hippocampal neurogenesis. We can thus hypothesize that the mice with more exploratory experience in terms of areal coverage (as quantified by RE) and related greater levels of adult hippocampal plasticity, might also be the ones that were less involved in interactions within the group and, hence, more individualistic. While this remains to be confirmed experimentally, the present data suggest that the described mechanism of individualization, which has previously been shown to be hippocampus-dependent, has a social component.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)140-152
Seitenumfang13
FachzeitschriftNeuroscience
Jahrgang309
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 19 Nov. 2015
Peer-Review-StatusJa

Externe IDs

PubMed 25987202
ORCID /0000-0002-5304-4061/work/161408196

Schlagworte

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Schlagwörter

  • Adult neurogenesis, Dentate gyrus, Experience, Exploration, Hippocampus, Plasticity