Representation-mediated Aversion as a Model to Study Psychotic-like States in Mice.

Arnau Busquets-Garcia, Edgar Soria-Gómez, Guillaume Ferreira, Giovanni Marsicano
BIO-PROTOCOL. 2017-01-01; 7(12):
DOI: 10.21769/bioprotoc.2358

PubMed
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1. Bio Protoc. 2017 Jun 20;7(12). pii: e2358. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2358.

Representation-mediated Aversion as a Model to Study Psychotic-like States in
Mice.

Busquets-Garcia A(1)(2), Soria-Gómez E(1)(2), Ferreira G(2)(3), Marsicano
G(1)(2).

Author information:
(1)INSERM, U1215 NeuroCentre Magendie, Bordeaux, France.
(2)University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.
(3)INRA, Nutrition et Neurobiologie Intégrée, UMR, Bordeaux, France.

Several paradigms for rodent models of the cognitive and negative endophenotypes
found in schizophrenic patients have been proposed. However, significant efforts
are needed in order to study the pathophysiology of schizophrenia-related
positive symptoms. Recently, it has been shown that these positive symptoms can
be studied in rats by using representation-mediated learning. This learning
measure the accuracy of mental representations of reality, also called ‘reality
testing’. Alterations in ‘reality testing’ performance can be an indication of an
impairment in perception which is a clear hallmark of positive psychotic-like
states. Thus, we describe here a mouse task adapted from previous findings based
on a sensory preconditioning task. With this task, associations made between
different neutral stimuli (e.g., an odor and a taste) and subsequent selective
devaluation of one of these stimuli have allowed us to study mental sensory
representations. Thus, the interest of this task is that it can be used to model
positive psychotic-like states in mice, as recently described.

DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2358
PMCID: PMC5662143
PMID: 29094060

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