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Foraging Activity is Reduced in a Mouse Model of Depression

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Abstract

Depression interferes with the human ability to make decisions. Multiple criteria have been adopted for the diagnosis of depression in humans, but no clear indicators are available in animal models to reflect the depressive mood, involving higher cognitive functions. The act of foraging is a species-specific behaviour which is believed to involve the decision-making and higher cognitive functions. We previously established a method to detect the foraging behaviour of rodents, in which our results demonstrated that NMDA and dopamine receptors were involved. Conversely, increased NMDA receptors and reduced dopamine have been reported in depression model rodents. However, we hypothesise that foraging activities may also be impaired in depression. To test the theory, we successfully established a mouse model of depression using the chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) paradigm. Most interestingly, the food foraging activity of mice after CUMS was significantly reduced. In addition, the treatment of anti-depressant fluoxetine reversed most depressive symptoms and reduced glial fibrillary associated protein (GFAP) expression in the hippocampus, but was less effective in the reduction of foraging activities. However, clozapine reversed all symptoms of CUMS-exposed mice including reduction of GFAP expression in the hippocampus and impaired foraging activity. Our findings of GFAP expression as a marker to validate the CUMS protocol provide further validation of our hypothesis, that the reduced food foraging is probably a new behavioural finding of depression in which the serotoninergic system could not be singly involved. Our study suggests that NMDA receptors, serotoninergic and dopaminergic systems are differentially involved in these food foraging behaviours. Our data suggest that the foraging test in rodents can be a useful tool to assess the ability of decision-making in depression.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grants from Chinese MST 2011CB944200, and Australian NHMRC (595937). We wish to thank Ms Kate Rees from UniSA for critical reading of this manuscript. ZHOU XF is a visiting Professor of Kunming Medical University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yunnan Key Laboratory of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells, Institute of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, People’s Republic of China

    C. R. Yang, Z. G. Zhang, Y. Y. Bai, L. Zhou, C. S. Ruan & X. F. Zhou

  2. Department of Pathology, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, People’s Republic of China

    C. R. Yang & L. J. Shen

  3. Sansom Institute for Health Research, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    H. Fiona Zhou & X. F. Zhou

  4. Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Xiangya Medical College, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    F. Li & C. Q. Li

  5. Department of Pathology, The Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China

    H. Y. Zheng

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  1. C. R. Yang
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  2. Z. G. Zhang
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  3. Y. Y. Bai
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  4. H. Fiona Zhou
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  5. L. Zhou
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  7. F. Li
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  10. L. J. Shen
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Correspondence to L. J. Shen or X. F. Zhou.

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C. R. Yang, Z. G. Zhang these authors contributed equally to the work.

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Yang, C.R., Zhang, Z.G., Bai, Y.Y. et al. Foraging Activity is Reduced in a Mouse Model of Depression. Neurotox Res 25, 235–247 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-013-9411-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-013-9411-6

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