AMPA receptor GluR2, but not GluR1, subunit deletion impairs emotional response conditioning in mice.
Deletions of gria1 or gria2 genes encoding alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic-acid-receptor subunits differ in their effects on appetitive conditioning. The authors investigated whether similar differences would occur in an aversive conditioning test. The ability of a discrete stimulus paired with footshock to subsequently inhibit food-maintained operant responding (conditioned emotional response) was examined in mice with deletions of gria1 or gria2 genes. Whereas gria1 knockout (KO) mice performed normally compared with wild-type (WT) controls, gria2 KO mice displayed no reduction in response rates when the shock-paired stimulus was presented. Nevertheless, gria2 KOs displayed evidence of freezing in a footshock-paired context, indicating that aversive learning could occur. In addition, gria1 KO mice showed some evidence of increased anxiety, and gria2 KOs showed reduced anxiety, in the elevated plus-maze.
Mead
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AN
Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.
Morris
H V
HV
Dixon
C I
CI
Rulten
S L
SL
Mayne
L V
LV
Zamanillo
D
D
Stephens
D N
DN
D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology*; D046352:Freezing Reaction, Cataleptic / Q000502:physiology; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D018091:Receptors, AMPA / Q000172:deficiency / Q000502:physiology*
D018091:Receptors, AMPA; C104722:glutamate receptor ionotropic, AMPA 2