Temporary inhibition of dorsal or ventral hippocampus by muscimol: Distinct effects on measures of innate anxiety on the elevated plus maze, but similar disruption of contextual fear conditioning

Zhang, Wei-Ning; Bast, Tobias; Yan, Xu; Feldon, Joram

Abstract

Studies in rats, involving hippocampal lesions and hippocampal drug infusions, have implicated the hippocampus in the modulation of anxiety-related behaviors and conditioned fear. The ventral hippocampus is considered to be more important for anxiety- and fear-related behaviors than the dorsal hippocampus. In the present study, we compared the role of dorsal and ventral hippocampus in innate anxiety and classical fear conditioning in Wistar rats, examining the effects of temporary pharmacological inhibition by the GABA-A agonist muscimol (0.5. ug/0.5. ul/side) in the elevated plus maze and on fear conditioning to a tone and the conditioning context. In the elevated plus maze, dorsal and ventral hippocampal muscimol caused distinct behavioral changes. The effects of ventral hippocampal muscimol were consistent with suppression of locomotion, possibly accompanied by anxiolytic effects, whereas the pattern of changes caused by dorsal hippocampal muscimol was consistent with anxiogenic effects. In contrast, dorsal and ventral hippocampal muscimol caused similar effects in the fear conditioning experiments, disrupting contextual, but not tone, fear conditioning. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Citation

Zhang, W.-N., Bast, T., Yan, X., & Feldon, J. (2014). Temporary inhibition of dorsal or ventral hippocampus by muscimol: Distinct effects on measures of innate anxiety on the elevated plus maze, but similar disruption of contextual fear conditioning. Behavioural Brain Research, 262, 47-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2013.10.044

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 28, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Nov 6, 2013
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jan 8, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 8, 2014
• Journal: Behavioural Brain Research
• Print ISSN: 0166-4328
• Electronic ISSN: 1872-7549
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 262
• Pages: 47-56
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2013.10.044
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/719716
• Publisher URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166432813006694
• Additional Information: NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Behavioural Brain Research. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version is published in Behavioural Brain Research, doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2013.10.044
• Contract Date: Jan 8, 2014