title: Short-term memory acquisition in female Huntington's disease mice is vulnerable to acute stress.
abstract: Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder marked by cognitive, psychiatric and motor decline, and is modifiable by unidentified environmental factors. We examined the effects of stress on cognitive function in R6/1 HD transgenic mice. Utilizing the Y-maze to assess short-term memory, we report that only female HD mice displayed vulnerability to 1h of confinement stress reflected by impaired memory acquisition. This could not be attributed to a different corticosterone response or exploratory behaviour in the task. This is the first demonstration of increased stress susceptibility in an animal model of HD involving a direct negative impact on cognitive function.
authors.affiliation: Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Kenneth Myer Building, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.forename: Thibault
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Renoir
authors.forename: Terence Y C
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Hannan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000378:metabolism; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012149:Restraint, Physical; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D003345:Corticosterone
keywords: Acute stress; Corticosterone; Huntington's disease; Sexual dimorphism; Short-term memory; Y-maze