Research article summary (published 12 Jun 2006):

Concomitant deficits in working memory and fear extinction are functionally dissociated from reduced anxiety in metabotropic glutamate receptor 7-deficient mice.

Full Abstract

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 (mGluR7), a receptor with a distinct brain distribution and a putative role in anxiety, emotional responding, and spatial working memory, could be an interesting therapeutic target for fear and anxiety disorders. mGluR7-deficient (mGluR7-/-) mice showed essentially normal performance in tests for neuromotor and exploratory activity and passive avoidance learning but prominent anxiolytic behavior in two anxiety tests. They showed a delayed learning curve during the acquisition of the hidden-platform water maze, and three interspersed probe trials indicated that mGluR7-/- mice were slower to acquire spatial information. Working memory in the water maze task and the radial arm maze was impaired in mGluR7-/- mice compared with mGluR7+/+. mGluR7-/- mice also displayed a higher resistance to extinction of fear-elicited response suppression in a conditioned emotional response protocol. In a non-fear-based water maze protocol, mGluR7-/- mice displayed similar delayed extinction. These observed behavioral changes are probably not attributable to changes in AMPA or NMDA receptor function because expression levels of AMPA and NMDA receptors were unaltered. Extinction of conditioned fear is an active and context-dependent form of inhibitory learning and an experimental model for therapeutic fear reduction. It appears to depend on glutamatergic and higher-level brain functions similar to those involved in spatial working memory but functionally dissociated from those that mediate constitutional responses in anxiety tests.

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Author information

Author/s: Callaerts-Vegh, Zsuzsanna (Z); Beckers, Tom (T); Ball, Simon M (SM); Baeyens, Frank (F); Callaerts, Patrick F (PF); Cryan, John F (JF); Molnar, Elek (E); D'Hooge, Rudi (R);

Affiliation: Laboratory of Biological Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (J Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Jun; vol 26 (issue 24) : pp 6573-82

Dates: Created 2006/06/15; Completed 2006/07/11; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 16775145, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Analysis of Variance Animals Anxiety - physiopathology Avoidance Learning - physiology Behavior, Animal Conditioning, Operant - physiology Disease Models, Animal Evoked Potentials, Visual - physiology Exploratory Behavior - physiology Extinction, Psychological - physiology Fear - psychology Female Gene Expression - physiology

Immunohistochemistry Interpersonal Relations Male Maze Learning - physiology Memory, Short-Term - physiology Mice Mice, Inbred C57BL Mice, Knockout Motor Activity - genetics Psychomotor Performance - physiology Receptors, AMPA - metabolism Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate - deficiency Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate - metabolism

Associated Chemicals: Receptors, AMPA (0) ; Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate (0) ; Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate (0) ; metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 (0)

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