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dissertation (2)


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2018 (2)

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Dissertation
Assessment of early cognitive performance and social behaviour in the biAT/TPLH mouse models for Alzheimer's disease
Authors: --- --- --- ---
Year: 2018 Publisher: Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Psychologie en Pedagogische Wetenschappen

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Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurocognitive disorder that affects over 40 million people worldwide and has become one of the main causes of death in developed countries. Its major neurobiological hallmarks are the extracellular Aβ plaques and the aggregation of hyperphosphorylated tau protein into intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). The disease is characterized by a gradual onset and progressive decline of cognitive functions such as episodic memory, executive functions and language. Moreover, AD patients present behavioural and psychological signs and symptoms of dementia (BPSD), such as social withdrawal, apathy, depressive mood, aggression and diurnal rhythm disturbances. Currently, no cure exists for the disease. However, many authors have proposed that earlier intervention could improve AD prognosis and might even halt AD progression. Therefore, it is crucial to improve preclinical detection and diagnosis of AD based on biomarkers and behavioural markers. In order to identify robust preclinical cognitive and non-cognitive changes in AD, we assessed cognitive functions and social behaviour in 3-month-old wild-type and transgenic mice over a period of three months. All mice had a C57BL/6J background. Two transgenic mouse models were used: 1) the biAT mouse model (APP.V717I x Tau.P301L) expressing both Aβ plaques and NFTs and 2) the TPLH mouse model (Tau.P301L) which only expresses tau pathology. All mice performed a variety of behavioural tasks to evaluate cognitive and non-cognitive impairments. More specifically, the test battery included 12 tasks (Morris water maze (MWM), context- and cue-dependent fear conditioning (CFR), spontaneous activity, rotarod, marble burying, elevated plus maze, open field, SPSN, tail suspension, tail withdrawal, nesting, and nesting 2.0), designed to assess hippocampus-dependent memory, exploratory, anxiety-related, social, depressive and nociceptive behaviour, and activities of daily living (ADLs). We hypothesized that compared to age-matched controls, transgenic mice would show specific impairments in both cognitive and non-cognitive tasks. We expected significant differences in hippocampus-dependent memory function and anxiety-related, social and depressive behaviour, which are affected first in human patients. Furthermore, we expected little to no differences in exploratory behaviour, nociception and ADLs, since these functions are generally affected in later stages of the disease. Furthermore, we expected more severe impairments in the biAT than in the TPLH mouse model. In line with our expectations, transgenic mice showed decreased cognitive flexibility in the MWM. Moreover, transgenic mice displayed increased anxiety-related behaviour. However, transgenic mice also displayed decreased exploratory behaviour and reduced functioning in ADLs. Finally, there were no major differences in performance between the biAT and TPLH mouse models.

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Dissertation
The Effect of Gender and Socio-Emotional Differences on Ultrasonic Vocalizations Production in C57BL/6 Mice
Authors: --- --- ---
Year: 2018 Publisher: Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Psychologie en Pedagogische Wetenschappen

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Abstract

As autism research is becoming a hot topic, mouse models are often used to test new hypothesis or possible genetic causes. Two important behavioral conditions of autism are difficulties with social skills and communication. Since mice also produce sounds, mouse ultrasonic vocalizations are increasingly used as a model for vocal communication deficits in humans. However not enough is known about why mice produce these ultrasonic vocalizations. To be able to form a good mice model there needs to be a good understanding of the gender differences in this type of vocalizations as well as a good understanding of how they relate to the rest of the mice’s behavioral repertoire. For this reason, the current research focused on recording and scoring these ultrasonic vocalizations mice produce to get a better idea of how they relate to gender and socio-emotional differences. Specifically, the research wanted to find possible gender differences in ultrasonic vocalization production and how this could relate to the mice’s socio-emotional characteristics. To understand how the ultrasonic vocalizations relate to the mice’s behavioral repertoire a test battery of commonly used behavioral tests was used. In the literature there are some authors who tried to create mouse models for human speech and these usually claim that mice who score higher on social tests produce more ultrasonic vocalizations. Non-social behavior relations with later ultrasonic vocalization productions are thus far not mentioned in the literature. Using two different setups to measure the ultrasonic vocalizations we got a good view of how much vocalizations mice produce. It was measured twice to add tracking to setup. As tracking was measured in the second measurement we got a good understanding of what the mice does while vocalizing. For the other behavioral tests ANOVA’s were calculated to consult the effect of gender on these behavioral tests as well as the ultrasonic vocalization production. In the next part ANOVA’s were used to look into the predictive value of ultrasonic vocalizations and gender interaction on these behavioral tests. Most of the results showed no relation between the behavioral tests and ultrasonic vocalizations, but gender usually had a very big influence. Gender plays a very big role in ultrasonic vocalization production and therefore care must be taken when selecting which gender to use in a mouse model. There seems to be no link to socio-emotional measures however. It is possible that this is because less social mice do not produce less vocalizations but produce different vocalizations, future research should look into this difference.

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