Abstract
It has been suggested over the decades that dysfunctional anxiety may be caused by distinct alterations in cognitive processing.
To learn more about the relation between anxiety and cognitive functioning, two mouse strains that display either adaptive
(BALB/c) or nonadaptive (129P2) anxiety, as reflected by their ability to habituate when repeatedly exposed to a novel environment,
were tested for their cognitive performance in the modified hole board (mHB) task. In general, both strains showed successful
acquisition of the task. The initially more anxious BALB/c mice revealed rapid habituation to the test setup, followed by
decreased long-term and short-term memory errors across the experimental period and fast relearning after reversal of the
task. By contrast, the nonadaptive 129P2 mice made more short-term memory errors and performed worse than the BALB/c animals
after reversal of the test. The results confirm the proposed interaction of anxiety and cognition: In BALB/c mice, adaptive
characteristics of anxiety were paralleled by more successful cognitive performance, while in 129P2 mice nonadaptive anxiety-related
behaviour was accompanied by a higher level of short-term memory errors and less cognitive flexibility. Moreover, these results
support our hypothesis that the nonadaptive anxiety phenotype in 129P2 mice may be the result of impaired cognitive control
of emotional processes, resulting in impaired behavioural flexibility, for example in response to novelty.
To learn more about the relation between anxiety and cognitive functioning, two mouse strains that display either adaptive
(BALB/c) or nonadaptive (129P2) anxiety, as reflected by their ability to habituate when repeatedly exposed to a novel environment,
were tested for their cognitive performance in the modified hole board (mHB) task. In general, both strains showed successful
acquisition of the task. The initially more anxious BALB/c mice revealed rapid habituation to the test setup, followed by
decreased long-term and short-term memory errors across the experimental period and fast relearning after reversal of the
task. By contrast, the nonadaptive 129P2 mice made more short-term memory errors and performed worse than the BALB/c animals
after reversal of the test. The results confirm the proposed interaction of anxiety and cognition: In BALB/c mice, adaptive
characteristics of anxiety were paralleled by more successful cognitive performance, while in 129P2 mice nonadaptive anxiety-related
behaviour was accompanied by a higher level of short-term memory errors and less cognitive flexibility. Moreover, these results
support our hypothesis that the nonadaptive anxiety phenotype in 129P2 mice may be the result of impaired cognitive control
of emotional processes, resulting in impaired behavioural flexibility, for example in response to novelty.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-10
- DOI 10.3758/s13415-012-0109-7
- Authors
- Amber R. Salomons, Division of Animal Welfare & Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Animals in Science and Society, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 2, P.O. Box 80.166, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Saskia S. Arndt, Division of Animal Welfare & Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Animals in Science and Society, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 2, P.O. Box 80.166, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Frauke Ohl, Division of Animal Welfare & Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Animals in Science and Society, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 2, P.O. Box 80.166, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Journal Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience
- Online ISSN 1531-135X
- Print ISSN 1530-7026