Sex- and Strain-Related Differences in the Extinction of a Conditioned Passive Avoidance Reaction in DISC-L100P and C57BL/6 Mice

• Published in: Neuroscience and behavioral physiology Vol. 53; no. 8; pp. 1478 - 1482
• Main Authors: Chizhova, N. D., Smirnova, K. V., Dubrovina, N. I., Lipina, T. V., Amstislavskaya, T. G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.10.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Disc1 protein; Extinction behavior; Females; Learning; Males; Neurobiology; Neurosciences; conditioned passive avoidance reaction; DISC1-L100P and C57BL/6 mice; extinction; schizophrenia; sex-related differences; fear
• ISSN: 0097-0549; 1573-899X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11055-023-01541-2

We report here studies of sex-related and interstrain differences in the processes of learning and extinction of a conditioned passive avoidance reaction in male and female DISC1-L100P mice and control C57BL/6 mice. Male and female mice of both strains were found to achieve good learning of the conditioned passive avoidance reaction, though they differed in the extinction of the memory of fear, i.e., the ability to form a new memory trace regarding the safety of the previously punished dark sector of the apparatus in a repeat test procedure. A deficit in the extinction of the conditioned passive avoidance reaction was found in female DISC1-L100P and C57BL/6 mice as compared with males. At the same time, interstrain differences were found in the dynamics of the extinction of this reaction in female mice of both strains. DISC1-L100P males were also found to differ from controls in terms of the time it took to achieve complete extinction of the reaction.