Nucleus accumbens core medium spiny neuron electrophysiological properties and partner preference behavior in the adult male prairie vole, Microtus ochrogaster
| Autor: | John Meitzen, Lisa A. McGraw, Andrea R. Vogel, Jaime A. Willett, Ashlyn G. Johnson, Heather B. Patisaul |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Male Patch-Clamp Techniques Adult male Physiology Action Potentials Nucleus accumbens Medium spiny neuron Nucleus Accumbens 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Animals Microtus Social Behavior Neurons biology Arvicolinae General Neuroscience Preference behavior Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials Mating Preference Animal biology.organism_classification Prairie vole Electrophysiology 030104 developmental biology Vole Neuroscience 030217 neurology & neurosurgery Research Article |
| Zdroj: | Journal of neurophysiology. 119(4) |
| ISSN: | 1522-1598 |
| Popis: | Medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the nucleus accumbens have long been implicated in the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie numerous social and motivated behaviors as studied in rodents such as rats. Recently, the prairie vole has emerged as an important model animal for studying social behaviors, particularly regarding monogamy because of its ability to form pair bonds. However, to our knowledge, no study has assessed intrinsic vole MSN electrophysiological properties or tested how these properties vary with the strength of the pair bond between partnered voles. Here we performed whole cell patch-clamp recordings of MSNs in acute brain slices of the nucleus accumbens core (NAc) of adult male voles exhibiting strong and weak preferences for their respective partnered females. We first document vole MSN electrophysiological properties and provide comparison to rat MSNs. Vole MSNs demonstrated many canonical electrophysiological attributes shared across species but exhibited notable differences in excitability compared with rat MSNs. Second, we assessed male vole partner preference behavior and tested whether MSN electrophysiological properties varied with partner preference strength. Male vole partner preference showed extensive variability. We found that decreases in miniature excitatory postsynaptic current amplitude and the slope of the evoked action potential firing rate to depolarizing current injection weakly associated with increased preference for the partnered female. This suggests that excitatory synaptic strength and neuronal excitability may be decreased in MSNs in males exhibiting stronger preference for a partnered female. Overall, these data provide extensive documentation of MSN electrophysiological characteristics and their relationship to social behavior in the prairie vole. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This research represents the first assessment of prairie vole nucleus accumbens core medium spiny neuron intrinsic electrophysiological properties and probes the relationship between cellular excitability and social behavior. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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