Prepulse inhibition predicts spatial working memory performance in the inbred Roman high- and low-avoidance rats and in genetically heterogeneous NIH-HS rats : relevance for studying pre-attentive and cognitive anomalies in schizophrenia
Oliveras, Ignasi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psiquiatria i de Medicina Legal)
Río-Álamos, Cristóbal (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psiquiatria i de Medicina Legal)
Cañete, Toni (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Neurociències)
Blázquez Romero, Glòria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Neurociències)
Martínez-Membrives, Esther (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psiquiatria i de Medicina Legal)
Giorgi, Osvaldo (University of Cagliari, Italy)
Corda, Maria G. (University of Cagliari, Italy)
Tobeña, Adolf 1950- (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psiquiatria i de Medicina Legal)
Fernández-Teruel, Alberto (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Neurociències)

Date:	2015
Abstract:	Animal models of schizophrenia-relevant symptoms are increasingly important for progress in our understanding of the neurobiological basis of the disorder and for discovering novel and more specific treatments. Prepulse inhibition (PPI) and working memory, which are impaired in schizophrenic patients, are among the symptoms/processes modeled in those animal analogs. We have evaluated whether a genetically-selected rat model, the Roman high-avoidance inbred strain (RHA-I), displays PPI deficits as compared with its Roman low-avoidance (RLA-I) counterpart and the genetically heterogeneous NIH-HS rat stock. We have investigated whether PPI deficits predict spatial working memory impairments (in the Morris water maze; MWM) in these three rat types (Experiment 1), as well as in a separate sample of NIH-HS rats stratified according to their extreme (High, Medium, Low) PPI scores (Experiment 2). The results from Experiment 1 show that RHA-I rats display PPI and spatial working memory deficits compared to both RLA-I and NIH-HS rats. Likewise, in Experiment 2, "Low-PPI" NIH-HS rats present significantly impaired working memory with respect to "Medium-PPI" and "High-PPI" NIH-HS subgroups. Further support to these results comes from correlational, factorial, and multiple regression analyses, which reveal that PPI is positively associated with spatial working memory performance. Conversely, cued learning in the MWM was not associated with PPI. Thus, using genetically-selected and genetically heterogeneous rats, the present study shows, for the first time, that PPI is a positive predictor of performance in a spatial working memory task. These results may have translational value for schizophrenia symptom research in humans, as they suggest that either by psychogenetic selection or by focusing on extreme PPI scores from a genetically heterogeneous rat stock, it is possible to detect a useful (perhaps "at risk") phenotype to study cognitive anomalies linked to schizophrenia.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PSI2013-41872-P
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Prepulse inhibition ; Spatial working memory ; Cognitive deficits ; Schizophrenia-relevant symptoms ; Schizophreniform rat model ; Roman high-avoidance rats ; Roman low-avoidance rats ; Genetically heterogeneous rats
Published in:	Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 9 (august 2015) , ISSN 1662-5153

DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00213
PMID: 26347624

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Health sciences and biosciences > Institut de Neurociències (INc)
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Articles > Published articles