PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
The marble-burying test is a pharmacologically validated paradigm used to study anxiety-like behaviors in laboratory rodents. Our laboratory has employed this assay as part of a behavioral screen to examine drug-induced negative affective states. Historically, the majority of our prior binge alcohol-drinking studies employed male subjects exclusively and reliably detected adolescent-adult differences in both basal and alcohol withdrawal-induced negative affect. However, age-related differences in marble-burying behavior were either absent or opposite those observed in our prior work when female subjects were included in the experimental design. As chemosensory cues from females are reported to be anxiolytic in males, the present study examined how odors from adult members of the opposite and same sex (obtained from soiled bedding) influence marble-burying behavior in adult, as well as adolescent, mice. Control studies examined the responsiveness of mice in the presence of novel neutral (vanilla) and aversive (tea tree) odors. Adult males exhibited reduced signs of anxiety-like behavior in the presence of female-soiled bedding, while adult females and adolescent mice of both sexes increased marble-burying behavior in the presence of both male- and female-soiled bedding. All mice exhibited increased burying in the presence of an aversive odor, while only adolescents increased marble-burying in response to the novel neutral odor. These data indicate sex by age interactions in the effects of volatile and nonvolatile odors from sexually-naive adult conspecifics on indices of anxiety-like behavior in the marble-burying test of relevance to the experimental design and procedural timing of experiments including sex as a biological variable.
摘要：
大理石掩埋测试是一种经过药理学验证的范例，用于研究实验室啮齿动物的焦虑样行为。我们的实验室已将此测定法用作行为筛选的一部分，以检查药物诱导的负面情感状态。历史上,我们之前的大部分暴饮暴食研究仅使用男性受试者,并可靠地检测到青少年-成人在基础和戒酒诱导的负面影响方面的差异.然而,当女性受试者被纳入实验设计时，大理石掩埋行为的年龄相关差异要么不存在，要么与我们先前的工作中观察到的差异相反。据报道，由于来自女性的化学感官线索在男性中具有抗焦虑性，本研究检查了异性和同性成年成员的气味（从弄脏的床上用品中获得）如何影响成人的大理石掩埋行为，以及青少年，mouse.对照研究检查了在存在新型中性（香草）和厌恶（茶树）气味的情况下小鼠的反应性。在女性弄脏的床上用品存在的情况下，成年男性表现出焦虑样行为的迹象减少，在男性和女性弄脏的床上用品存在的情况下，成年雌性和青春期小鼠的大理石掩埋行为增加。所有老鼠在有厌恶气味的情况下都表现出增加的埋藏，而只有青少年增加了大理石掩埋以回应新的中性气味。这些数据表明性别与年龄之间的相互作用，在大理石掩埋测试中，性幼稚的成人物种产生的挥发性和非挥发性气味对焦虑样行为指数的影响与实验设计和实验的程序时机有关，包括性别作为生物变量。
