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Response to novelty and cocaine stimulant effects: lack of stability across environments in female Swiss mice

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Abstract

Rationale

In humans, novelty/sensation seeking is seen as a personality trait with a positive relationship with addiction vulnerability. In animal studies, one of the standard procedures to model novelty seeking is the “response to novelty,” i.e., the levels of locomotor activity in a new environment. In rodents, a positive correlation was demonstrated between the response to novelty and several effects of drugs, especially the locomotor stimulant effects of cocaine.

Objectives

The present study was designed to test in mice whether the response to novelty is stable across environments and whether its relationship with the stimulant effects of cocaine is altered by environmental changes. Experiment 1 assessed the responses to novelty of the same mice in two different novel environments. Experiment 2 tested the correlation between response to novelty and acute stimulant effects of cocaine recorded in two distinct environments.

Results

The results show a weak correlation only during the first 5 min of the session between the responses to novelty measured in two distinct environments. Experiment 2 demonstrates that novelty responses and stimulant effects of cocaine are positively correlated only when both behavioral responses are measured in the same environment. In contrast, the relationship between response to novelty and acute stimulant effects of cocaine is completely lost when the behavioral responses are recorded in two different environments.

Conclusions

The present results question the usual interpretation of the correlation between the response to novelty and the stimulant effects of cocaine as reflecting a relationship between two underlying individual stable characteristics.

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Acknowledgments

The present research was supported by grants obtained by Etienne Quertemont from the Fonds Spéciaux pour la Recherche (FSR) from the University of Liège and the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS, Convention n 2.4529.09). Laura Nyssen is a PhD candidate under contract with the FNRS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Psychologie, Cognition et Comportement, Service de psychologie quantitative, Université de Liège, Place des Orateurs, 2/B32, Liège, Belgium

    Laura Nyssen, Christian Brabant, Vincent Didone & Etienne Quertemont

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  1. Laura Nyssen
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  2. Christian Brabant
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  3. Vincent Didone
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  4. Etienne Quertemont
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Correspondence to Etienne Quertemont.

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Nyssen, L., Brabant, C., Didone, V. et al. Response to novelty and cocaine stimulant effects: lack of stability across environments in female Swiss mice. Psychopharmacology 233, 691–700 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-015-4146-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-015-4146-0

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