scholarly journals Zebrafish use visual cues and geometric relationships to form a spatial memory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ksenia Yashina ◽  
Álvaro Tejero-Cantero ◽  
Andreas Herz ◽  
Herwig Baier
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Mixed Strategies ◽  
Model Species ◽  
Visual Patterns ◽  
Conditioned Place Avoidance ◽  
Avoidance Paradigm ◽  
Spatial Memories ◽  
Place Avoidance ◽  
Learning Modes

AbstractAnimals use salient cues to navigate in their environment, but their specific cognitive strategies are largely unknown. We developed a conditioned place avoidance paradigm to discover whether and how zebrafish form spatial memories in a Y-shaped maze. Juvenile zebrafish, older than three weeks, learned to avoid the arm of the maze that was cued with a mild electric shock. We found that the fish required distinct visual patterns to develop a conditioned response. Interestingly, individual fish solve this task in different ways: by staying in the safe center of the maze, by preference for one, or both, of the safe patterns, or by mixed strategies. In experiments in which the learned patterns were swapped, rotated or replaced, the animals could transfer the association of safety to a different arm or to a different pattern using either visual cues or location as the conditioned stimulus. These findings show that juvenile zebrafish exhibit several complementary spatial learning modes and pave the way for neurobiological studies of navigational mechanisms in this model species.

scholarly journals Dissociation of exteroceptive and idiothetic orientation cues⋮ effect on hippocampal place cells and place navigation

1997 ◽  
Vol 352 (1360) ◽  
pp. 1515-1524 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bures ◽  
A. A. Fenton ◽  
Yu. Kaminsky ◽  
J. Rossier ◽  
B. Sacchetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Reference Frames ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Place Cells ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Place Navigation ◽  
Preference Task ◽  
Spatial Memories ◽  
Place Avoidance ◽  
Orientation Cues

Navigation by means of cognitive maps appears to require the hippocampus; hippocampal place cells (PCs) appear to store spatial memories because their discharge is confined to cell–specific places called firing fields (FFs). Experiments with rats manipulated idiothetic and landmark–related information to understand the relationship between PC activity and spatial cognition. Rotating a circular arena in the light caused a discrepancy between these cues. This discrepancy caused most FFs to disappear in both the arena and room reference frames. However, FFs persisted in the rotating arena frame when the discrepancy was reduced by darkness or by a card in the arena. The discrepancy was increased by ’field clamping’the rat in a room–defined FF location by rotations that countered its locomotion. Most FFs dissipated and reappeared an hour or more after the clamp. Place–avoidance experiments showed that navigation uses independent idiothetic and exteroceptive memories. Rats learned to avoid the unmarked footshock region within a circular arena. When acquired on the stable arena in the light, the location of the punishment was learned by using both room and idiothetic cues; extinction in the dark transferred to the following session in the light. If, however, extinction occurred during rotation, only the arena–frame avoidance was extinguished in darkness; the room–defined location was avoided when the lights were turned back on. Idiothetic memory of room–defined avoidance was not formed during rotation in light; regardless of rotation, there was no avoidance when the lights were turned off, but room–frame avoidance reappeared when the lights were turned back on. The place–preference task rewarded visits to an allocentric target location with a randomly dispersed pellet. The resulting behaviour alternated between random pellet searching and target–directed navigation, making it possible to examine PC correlates of these two classes of spatial behaviour. The independence of idiothetic and exteroceptive spatial memories and the disruption of PC firing during rotation suggest that PCs may not be necessary for spatial cognition; this idea can be tested by recordings during the place–avoidance and preference tasks.

Time stamp in conditioned place avoidance can be set to different circadian phases

2008 ◽  
Vol 89 (4) ◽  
pp. 591-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean W. Cain ◽  
Robert J. McDonald ◽  
Martin R. Ralph
Keyword(s):  
Time Stamp ◽  
Conditioned Place Avoidance ◽  
Place Avoidance

Amygdala priming results in conditioned place avoidance

2002 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley K. Thielen ◽  
Anantha Shekhar
Keyword(s):  
Conditioned Place Avoidance ◽  
Place Avoidance

Pronociceptive effects of a TRPA1 channel agonist methylglyoxal in healthy control and diabetic animals

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 260-260
Author(s):  
Hanna Viisanen ◽  
Maria Lasierra ◽  
Hong Wei ◽  
Ari Koivisto ◽  
Karl E. Åkerman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Diabetes Mellitus ◽  
Pain Behavior ◽  
Drg Neurons ◽  
Mechanical Hypersensitivity ◽  
Conditioned Place Avoidance ◽  
Healthy Control ◽  
Place Avoidance ◽  
Ongoing Pain ◽  
Endogenous Release

Abstract Aims Methylglyoxal (MG), a reactive carbonyl compound generated in diabetes mellitus (DM), activates the TRPA1 ion channel. Here we studied whether MG induces mechanical hypersensitivity or ongoing pain and whether the pronociceptive effect of MG is changed following its sustained endogenous release in DM. Methods DM was induced by streptozotocin (50-60 mg/kg i.p.) in the rat. MG and Chembridge-5861528 (CHEM), a selective TRPA1 channel antagonist, were administered intraplantarly (i.pl.) in control and diabetic animals. Limb withdrawal to monofilaments was used as an index of hypersensitivity, and observation of sustained pain-like behavior and conditioned place-avoidance test were used to assess ongoing pain. In vitro calcium imaging was used to study whether MG induces sustained activation of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons of diabetic as well as control animals. Results MG produced mechanical hypersensitivity and ongoing pain behavior in control animals, which effects were reduced in diabetic animals. CHEM treatment at a dose suppressing the MG-induced mechanical hypersensitivity failed to suppress the MG-induced ongoing pain behavior. MG was able to produce sustained calcium inflow in DRG neurons of DM as well as control animals. Conclusions The results suggest that MG induces hypersensitivity and ongoing pain that are reduced in diabetes mellitus, possibly due to changes caused by the DM-induced sustained endogenous release of MG. Moreover, the MG-induced mechanical hypersensitivity can be more effectively reversed by a TRPA1 antagonist than the MG-induced ongoing pain behavior.

scholarly journals The Role of Central Amygdala Corticotropin-Releasing Factor in Predator Odor Stress-Induced Avoidance Behavior and Escalated Alcohol Drinking in Rats

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus M. Weera ◽  
Allyson L. Schreiber ◽  
Elizabeth M. Avegno ◽  
Nicholas W. Gilpin
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Drinking ◽  
Avoidance Behavior ◽  
Conditioned Avoidance ◽  
Corticotropin Releasing Factor ◽  
Predator Odor ◽  
Central Amygdala ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Conditioned Place Avoidance ◽  
Place Avoidance ◽  
Post Traumatic

ABSTRACTPost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by avoidance of trauma-associated stimuli and amygdala hyperreactivity, and is highly co-morbid with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Our lab uses a predator odor (bobcat urine) stress model that produces conditioned avoidance of an odor-paired context in a subset of rats, mirroring avoidance symptoms that manifest in some but not all humans exposed to trauma. We previously showed that after predator odor stress, Avoiders exhibit escalated alcohol drinking, higher aversion-resistant operant alcohol responding, hyperalgesia, and greater anxiety-like behavior compared to unstressed Controls. We also showed that systemic antagonism of corticotropin-releasing factor-1 receptors (CRFR1) reduced escalation of alcohol drinking in rats not indexed for avoidance, that corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) infusions into the central amygdala (CeA) produced conditioned place avoidance in stress-naïve rats, and that intra-CeA infusion of a CRFR1 antagonist reduced hyperalgesia in Avoiders. Here, we show that avoidance behavior is persistent after repeated predator odor exposure and is resistant to extinction. In addition, Avoiders showed lower weight gain than Controls after predator odor re-exposure. In the brain, higher avoidance was correlated with higher number of c-Fos+ cells and CRF immunoreactivity in the CeA. Finally, we show that intra-CeA CRFR1 antagonism reversed post-stress escalation of alcohol drinking and reduced avoidance behavior in Avoiders. Collectively, these findings suggest that elucidation of the mechanisms by which CRFR1-gated CeA circuits regulate avoidance behavior and alcohol drinking may lead to better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying co-morbid PTSD and AUD.

scholarly journals Insect behavioral evidence of spatial memories during environmental reconfiguration

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diogo Santos-Pata ◽  
Alex Escuredo ◽  
Zenon Mathews ◽  
Paul F.M.J. Verschure
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Representation ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Mixed Reality ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Insect Behavior ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Spatial Memories ◽  
Behavioral Evidence ◽  
Novel Target

ABSTRACTInsects are great explorers, able to navigate through long-distance trajectories and successfully find their way back. Their navigational routes cross dynamic environments suggesting adaptation to novel configurations. Arthropods and vertebrates share neural organizational principles and it has been shown that rodents modulate their neural spatial representation accordingly with environmental changes. However, it is unclear whether insects reflexively adapt to environmental changes or retain memory traces of previously explored situations. We sought to disambiguate between insect behavior at environmental novel situations and reconfiguration conditions. An immersive mixed-reality multi-sensory setup was built to replicate multi-sensory cues. We have designed an experimental setup where female crickets Gryllus Bimaculatus were trained to move towards paired auditory and visual cues during primarily phonotactic driven behavior. We hypothesized that insects were capable of identifying sensory modifications in known environments. Our results show that, regardless of the animals history, novel situation conditions did not compromise the animals performance and navigational directionality towards a novel target location. However, in trials where visual and auditory stimuli were spatially decoupled, the animals heading variability towards a previously known location significantly increased. Our findings showed that crickets are able to behaviorally manifest environmental reconfiguration, suggesting the encoding for spatial representation.

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