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Increased running wheel activity and dyadic behavior of rats with hippocampal granule cell deficits

1976; Academic Press; Volume: 16; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0091-6773(76)91173-1

1557-8267

Paul J. Peters, Robert L. Brunner,

Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms

During the first 2 weeks after birth, infant rats were subjected to a schedule of localized X-irradiation, which has been shown to produce substantial decrease in cell number in the dentate gyrus. In contrast to reports of surgically lesioned rats, we observed hyperactivity in young X-irradiated rats as measured by revolutions of a running wheel. This hyperactivity occurred mainly at night. When isolated in a home cage, and then confronted with an intruder rat, adult hippocampal rats boxed, mounted, and showed dominance postures at a greater frequency than did controls. The hippocampal rats did not fight more, however. These results suggest that hippocampal rats overrespond to normal stimuli.