Chronic metals ingestion by prairie voles produces sex-specific deficits in social behavior: an animal model of autism
| Autor: | Amber N. Hood, J. Thomas Curtis, David R. Wallace, Yue Chen, George P. Cobb |
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| Rok vydání: | 2010 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Time Factors Physiology Motor Activity Article Developmental psychology Behavioral Neuroscience Random Allocation Cadmium Chloride Dopamine Metals Heavy medicine Ingestion Animals Autistic Disorder Amphetamine Microtus Social Behavior Sex Characteristics biology Behavior Animal Arvicolinae Brain Recognition Psychology Mercury medicine.disease biology.organism_classification Social relation Prairie vole Disease Models Animal Mercuric Chloride Autism Female Psychology medicine.drug Cadmium |
| Zdroj: | Behavioural brain research. 213(1) |
| ISSN: | 1872-7549 |
| Popis: | We examined the effects of chronic metals ingestion on social behavior in the normally highly social prairie vole to test the hypothesis that metals may interact with central dopamine systems to produce the social withdrawal characteristic of autism. Relative to water-treated controls, 10 weeks of chronic ingestion of either Hg(++) or Cd(++) via drinking water significantly reduced social contact by male voles when they were given a choice between isolation or contact with an unfamiliar same-sex conspecific. The effects of metals ingestion were specific to males: no effects of metals exposure were seen in females. Metals ingestion did not alter behavior of males allowed to choose between isolation or their familiar cage-mates, rather than strangers. We also examined the possibility that metals ingestion affects central dopamine functioning by testing the voles' locomotor responses to peripheral administration of amphetamine. As with the social behavior, we found a sex-specific effect of metals on amphetamine responses. Males that consumed Hg(++) did not increase their locomotor activity in response to amphetamine, whereas similarly treated females and males that ingested only water significantly increased their locomotor activities. Thus, an ecologically relevant stimulus, metals ingestion, produced two of the hallmark characteristics of autism - social avoidance and a male-oriented bias. These results suggest that metals exposure may contribute to the development of autism, possibly by interacting with central dopamine function, and support the use of prairie voles as a model organism in which to study autism. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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