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The Y-maze barrier task is a behavior test that examines motivation to expend effort for reward. Here, we discuss testing multiple well-validated chronic stressors including chronic corticosterone and social defeat stress with this behavior, as well as the novel chronic non-discriminatory social defeat stress (CNSDS), which is effective in females.
Mood disorders, including major depressive disorder, can be precipitated by chronic stress. The Y-maze barrier task is an effort-related choice test that measures motivation to expend effort and obtain reward. In mice, chronic stress exposure significantly impacts motivation to work for a higher value reward when a lesser value reward is freely available compared to unstressed mice. Here we describe the chronic corticosterone administration paradigm, which produces a shift in effortful responding in the Y-maze barrier task. In the Y-maze task, one arm contains 4 food pellets, while the other arm contains only 2 pellets. After mice learn to select the high reward arm, barriers with progressively increasing height are then introduced into the high reward arm over multiple test sessions. Unfortunately, most chronic stress paradigms (including corticosterone and social defeat) were developed in male mice and are less effective in female mice. Therefore, we also discuss chronic non-discriminatory social defeat stress (CNSDS), a stress paradigm we developed that is effective in both male and female mice. Repeating results with multiple distinct chronic stressors in male and female mice combined with increased usage of translationally relevant behavior tasks will help to advance the understanding of how chronic stress can precipitate mood disorders.
Mood disorders such as depression and anxiety are highly prevalent in today’s society. Decades of work has continuously searched for improved treatments and relevant rodent models to study these complex disorders1. Chronic stress is a contributing factor for mood disorders like depression2. Therefore, chronic stress paradigms such as chronic social defeat stress (SDS) and chronic corticosterone administration (CORT) were developed in male mice and are now widely used to assess the neurobiological and behavioral effects of chronic stress exposure. The most widely used behavioral tests for assessing chronic stress ef....
These experiments were conducted in compliance with NIH laboratory animal care guidelines and approved by the Rutgers University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
1. Chronic corticosterone (CORT)
Chronic CORT was administered for 4 weeks followed by Y-maze barrier training and testing (Figure 1A). In a separate cohort, the 10-day SDS paradigm was similarly followed by training and testing in the Y-maze barrier task (Figure 1C), to determine the effect of these chronic stress paradigms on effort-related choice behavior in male mice. Chronic CORT and SDS both reduced mean body weight compared to Vehicle mice and SDS Control mice as determined by t.......
While the chronic CORT paradigm provides a constant CORT dose in the drinking water, from experience there can be some variability in amount consumed by mice. Further, consumption can only be assessed for the total cage, and an average taken based on the number of mice in the cage. Additionally, spillage can occur when weighing the bottles, transferring the mice for behavior testing, or when changing to a fresh cage. However, tracking Vehicle and CORT consumption is still feasible and accurate across weeks of treatment a.......
The authors would like to thank Thomas Grace for constructing Y-mazes, barriers, and social defeat cages. The authors would like to thank Jay Lee, Karina Stech, and Prachi Srivastava for assistance with data collection. This work was funded by NIMH Grant R01 MH112861 (BAS).
....Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
Acrylic Sheet | McMaster Carr | 8560K215 | Clear, 3/16" thick, 24" X 36" |
Beta-cyclodextrin | Sigma-Aldrich | C4767 | 500 mg |
C57BL/6J Mice | Jackson Labs | 000664 | Adults age 7-8 weeks |
Corticosterone | Sigma-Aldrich | C2505 or C27840 | 100 or 500 mg |
Male CD-1 Mice | Charles River | 022 | "Retired Breeders" |
PVC Acrylic Sheet | McMaster Carr | 8560K215 | White, 3/16" thick, 48" X 48" |
Solidstate Ultrasonic Cleaner | Fisher Scientific | FS-28 | Must reach 40 kHz |
Steel Wire Cloth | McMaster Carr | 9219T143 | 1 ft X 2 ft |
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