Skip to main content
Top
Published in: Behavioral and Brain Functions 1/2017

Open Access 01-12-2017 | Research

Sex differences in avoidance behavior after perceiving potential risk in mice

Authors: Sayaka Yokota, Yusuke Suzuki, Keigo Hamami, Akiko Harada, Shoji Komai

Published in: Behavioral and Brain Functions | Issue 1/2017

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

Sex has been considered as a potential factor regulating individual behaviors in different contexts. Recently, findings on sex differences in the neuroendocrine circuit have expanded due to exact measurements and control of neuronal activity, while findings on sex differences in behavioral phenotypes are limited. One efficient way to determine the miscellaneous aspects of a sexually different behavior is to segment it into a set of simpler responses induced by discrete scenes.

Methods

In the present study, we conducted a battery of behavioral tests within a variety of unique risky scenes, to determine where and how sex differences arise in responses under those scenes.

Results

A significant sex difference was observed in the avoidance responses measured in the two-way active and the passive avoidance tests. The phenotype observed was higher mobility in male mice and reduced mobility in female mice, and required associative learning between an escapable risk and its predictive cue. This was limited in other scenes where escapable risk or predictive cue or both were missing.

Conclusions

Taken together, the present study found that the primary sex difference occurs in mobility in the avoidance response after perceiving escapable risks.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Literature
9.
go back to reference Burgos-Artizzu XP, Dollár P, Lin D, Anderson DJ, Perona P. Social behavior recognition in continuous video. In: 2012 IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (CVPR). Piscataway: IEEE; 2012. p. 1322–9. Burgos-Artizzu XP, Dollár P, Lin D, Anderson DJ, Perona P. Social behavior recognition in continuous video. In: 2012 IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (CVPR). Piscataway: IEEE; 2012. p. 1322–9.
11.
go back to reference Topál J, Csányi V. The effect of eye-like schema on shuttling activity of wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus): context-dependent threatening aspects of the eyespot patterns. Anim Learn Behav. 1994;22:96–102. doi:10.3758/bf03199961.CrossRef Topál J, Csányi V. The effect of eye-like schema on shuttling activity of wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus): context-dependent threatening aspects of the eyespot patterns. Anim Learn Behav. 1994;22:96–102. doi:10.​3758/​bf03199961.CrossRef
15.
26.
go back to reference Chang T, Meyer U, Feldon J, Yee BK. Disruption of the US pre-exposure effect and latent inhibition in two-way active avoidance by systemic amphetamine in C57BL/6 mice. Psychopharmacology. 2007;191:211–21. doi:10.1007/s00213-006-0649-z.CrossRefPubMed Chang T, Meyer U, Feldon J, Yee BK. Disruption of the US pre-exposure effect and latent inhibition in two-way active avoidance by systemic amphetamine in C57BL/6 mice. Psychopharmacology. 2007;191:211–21. doi:10.​1007/​s00213-006-0649-z.CrossRefPubMed
29.
go back to reference Kromer SA, Kessler MS, Milfay D, Birg IN, Bunck M, Czibere L, et al. Identification of glyoxalase-I as a protein marker in a mouse model of extremes in trait anxiety. J Neurosci. 2005;25:4375–84. doi:10.1055/s-2003-825414.CrossRefPubMed Kromer SA, Kessler MS, Milfay D, Birg IN, Bunck M, Czibere L, et al. Identification of glyoxalase-I as a protein marker in a mouse model of extremes in trait anxiety. J Neurosci. 2005;25:4375–84. doi:10.​1055/​s-2003-825414.CrossRefPubMed
33.
go back to reference Adamec R, Head D, Blundell J, Burton P, Berton O. Lasting anxiogenic effects of feline predator stress in mice: sex differences in vulnerability to stress and predicting severity of anxiogenic response from the stress experience. Physiol Behav. 2006;88:12–29. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2006.03.005.CrossRefPubMed Adamec R, Head D, Blundell J, Burton P, Berton O. Lasting anxiogenic effects of feline predator stress in mice: sex differences in vulnerability to stress and predicting severity of anxiogenic response from the stress experience. Physiol Behav. 2006;88:12–29. doi:10.​1016/​j.​physbeh.​2006.​03.​005.CrossRefPubMed
Metadata
Title
Sex differences in avoidance behavior after perceiving potential risk in mice
Authors
Sayaka Yokota
Yusuke Suzuki
Keigo Hamami
Akiko Harada
Shoji Komai
Publication date
01-12-2017
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Behavioral and Brain Functions / Issue 1/2017
Electronic ISSN: 1744-9081
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12993-017-0126-3

Other articles of this Issue 1/2017

Behavioral and Brain Functions 1/2017 Go to the issue