title: Sex-specific attentional deficits in adult vitamin D deficient BALB/c mice.
abstract: Epidemiological studies have shown an association between vitamin D deficiency and cognitive impairment. However, there is a paucity of preclinical data showing that vitamin D deficiency is a causal factor for impaired cognitive processing. The aim of this study was to assess two cognitive tasks, the 5 choice-serial reaction task and the 5 choice-continuous performance task in adult vitamin D (AVD) deficient BALB/c mice. Ten-week old male and female BALB/c mice were fed a control or vitamin D deficient diet for 10 weeks prior to, and during behavioural testing. We found sex-dependent impairments in attentional processing and showed that male AVD-deficient mice were less accurate, took longer to respond when making a correct choice and were more likely to make an omission, without a change in the motivation to collect reward. By contrast, female AVD-deficient mice had a reduced latency to collect reward, but no changes on any other measures compared to controls. Therefore, we have shown that in otherwise healthy adult mice, vitamin D deficiency led to mild cognitive impairment in male but not female mice and therefore this model will be useful for future investigations into unravelling the mechanism by which vitamin D affects the adult brain and cognitive function.
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Natalie J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Groves
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia; Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, The Park Centre for Mental Health, Richlands, Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: t.burne@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Thomas H J
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Burne
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology*; D001835:Body Weight; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004435:Eating; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005260:Female; D005508:Food Deprivation; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D011930:Reaction Time; D012201:Reward; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000097:blood; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications*
chemical_list: D014807:Vitamin D
keywords: 5 choice serial reaction task; Animal model; Cognition; Vitamin D