Activity and impulsive action are controlled by different genetic and environmental factors.
Both impulsivity in operant tasks and locomotor activity in a novel open field are known to predict the development of addiction-related behavior in rodents. In this study, we investigated to what extent impulsivity in the five-choice serial reaction time task and various measures of novelty exploration are controlled by shared genetic and environmental factors in 12 different inbred mouse strains. No genetic correlation was observed between the level of impulsivity and levels of activity, a low correlation was observed with traditional measures of anxiety-like behavior (impulsive strains tend to be less anxious) and a highly significant correlation was found between impulsivity and specific aspects of movement. Furthermore, we found that impulsivity and all measures of novelty exploration were under control of different environmental factors. Interestingly, in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, a brain region involved in impulsivity and activity in novelty exploration tests; these behavioral measures correlated with the expression of different genes (respectively, Frzb, Snx5, BC056474 and the previously identified Glo1). Taken together, our study shows that impulsivity and activity in novelty exploration tests are genetically and environmentally distinct, suggesting that mouse models of these behaviors provide complementary insights into the development of substance abuse disorder.
Loos
M
M
Departments of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
van der Sluis
S
S
Bochdanovits
Z
Z
van Zutphen
I J
IJ
Pattij
T
T
Stiedl
O
O
Smit
A B
AB
Spijker
S
S
D000818:Animals; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000235:genetics; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000235:genetics*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004777:Environment; D004780:Environment, Controlled; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005838:Genotype; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000235:genetics*; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000235:genetics*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000235:genetics*; D058305:Sorting Nexins; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D000099274:Frizzled-Related Proteins
D006023:Glycoproteins; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D058305:Sorting Nexins; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins; D000099274:Frizzled-Related Proteins; C533712:Snx5 protein, mouse