Assessing Schizophrenia-relevant Cognitive and Social Deficits in Mice: A Selection of Mouse Behavioral Tasks and Potential Therapeutic Compounds
Journal
CPD
Journal Volume
20
Journal Issue
32
Pages
5139--5150
Date Issued
2014-01
Author(s)
Abstract
Schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders are generally diagnosed based on a collection of symptoms defined by a combination of an individual’s feelings, perceptions, and behaviors. Many of these disorders are characterized by specific cognitive and social deficits. Although it is nearly impossible to recapitulate the full phenotypic spectrum of schizophrenia in mice, mouse models play an indispensable role in understanding the pathogenesis of this disorder and the development of new therapeutics. Genetic mouse models of schizophrenia and mouse behavioral tests provide a feasible approach for elucidating causal relationships between susceptibility gene(s) and schizophrenia-related symptoms. There has been a proliferation of studies characterizing basic behavioral phenotypes in mice. Since there is no way to completely model human psychiatric symptoms in mice, the major role of behavioral tests is to provide insights into underlying affected circuitry and pathophysiology. Given that the recovery of cognitive and social abilities significantly benefits functional outcomes, there has been an increasing interest in characterizing cognitive and social functions in mutant mice; however, these functions are not easy to measure. In this review, a selection of conventional behavioral tasks was briefly described and three specific behavioral tasks aimed at characterizing social communication, attentional function, and choice behavior in mice were highlighted. The choice of specific behavioral tasks during experimental planning should take into consideration a variety of factors, including their validity, reliability, sensitivity, utility, and specificity. Based upon the hypothetical hypofunction of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-mediated signaling pathways in the involvement of cognitive and social impairments in schizophrenia, three NMDAR-related compounds/drugs, D-serine, sarcosine, and D-cycloserine, are discussed as an example. ? 2014 Bentham Science Publishers.
Subjects
Attention; Choice behavior; Cognitive/social deficit; Glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia; Glycine; Mouse behavioral tasks; Schizophrenia; Social communication
Other Subjects
cycloserine; dextro serine; n methyl dextro aspartic acid receptor; sarcosine; n methyl dextro aspartic acid receptor; nootropic agent; cycloserine; dextro serine; sarcosine; 5 choice serial reaction time task; Article; attention; behavior disorder; cognitive defect; decision making; dynamic foraging task; experimental social behavior test; exploratory behavior test; food preference; food preference task; foraging; genetic model; hole board test; interpersonal communication; learning; maze test; molecular pathology; mouse model; negative syndrome; nonhuman; novel object recognition test; open field test; priority journal; response time; schizophrenia; social deficit; ultrasonic vocalization task; animal; animal behavior; Cognition Disorders; disease model; human; metabolism; mouse; pathophysiology; reproducibility; schizophrenia; social behavior; cognition assessment; experimental behavioral test; foraging behavior; genetic susceptibility; genetic variability; genome-wide association study; pathogenesis; positive syndrome; Review; schizophrenia; signal transduction; social disability; social status; task performance; ultrasonic vocalization; vocalization; Animals; Behavior, Animal; Cognition Disorders; Disease Models, Animal; Humans; Mice; Nootropic Agents; Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; Reproducibility of Results; Schizophrenia; Social Behavior
Type
journal article