title: Effects of chlordiazepoxide on the emotional reactivity and motor capacities in the cerebellar Lurcher mutant mice.
abstract: It is now well accepted that besides its roles in motor control, the cerebellum is involved in non-motor functions with emotional aspects. Consistent with this view, several studies highlighted that the cerebellar Lurcher mutant mice (+/Lc), with motor impairments, also exhibited altered emotional reactivity, previously interpreted in term of behavioural disinhibition. In this study, we investigated the effects of a classical anxiolytic on such disinhibition. For that, behaviours of +/Lc and control (+/+) mice injected with NaCl or chlordiazepoxide (CDP 5 and 7.5mg/kg) were evaluated in the elevated plus-maze test. The motor impact of the drug (7.5mg/kg only) was also evaluated in the hole-board and unstable platform tests. Our results showed that, compared to the +/+ mice, CDP injection greatly influenced the anxious-related behaviours in the +/Lc mice by reducing their preference to the open areas in the elevated plus-maze test. Furthermore, we found that injection of CDP at the dose of 7.5mg/kg aggravated motor coordination deficit, altered motor learning capabilities in the mutants and provoked equilibrium disturbances in the non-mutant mice in the unstable platform test. These results indicated that CDP was able to reduce behavioural disinhibition in the cerebellar +/Lc mice and were discussed in term of implication of the cerebellar connections into CDP-sensitive neural circuitries involved in both emotional and motor processes.
authors.affiliation: IFRMP 23, UPRES EA 1780, Equipe Neurobiologie de l'Apprentissage, Université de Rouen, Faculté des Sciences, 76821 Mont-Saint-Aignan Cedex, France. thomas.lorivel@etu.univ-rouen.fr
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lorivel
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hilber
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D002707:Chlordiazepoxide / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D051379:Mice; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D008818:Mice, Neurologic Mutants; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents; D002707:Chlordiazepoxide