Maternal separation followed by isolation-housing differentially affects prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response in C57BL/6 mice

Exposure to chronic stress is associated with an increased incidence of neuropsychiatric dysfunction. The current study evaluated two competing hypotheses, the cumulative stress and the match/mismatch hypothesis of neuropsychiatric dysfunction, using two paradigms relating to exposure to “stress”: pre-weaning maternal separation and post-weaning isolation-housing. C57BL/6 offspring were reared under four conditions: typical animal facility rearing (AFR, control), early handling (EH, daily 15 min separation from dam), maternal separation (MS, daily 4 hr separation from dam), and maternal and peer separation (MPS, daily 4 hr separation from dam and from littermates). After weaning, mice were either housed socially (2–3/cage) or in isolation (1/cage) and then tested for prepulse inhibition in adulthood. Isolation-housed MPS subjects displayed greater deficits in prepulse inhibition relative to socially-housed MPS subjects while socially-housed AFR subjects displayed greater deficits in prepulse inhibition relative to isolation-housed AFR subjects. The results indicate that these treatment conditions represent a potentially valuable model for evaluating the match/mismatch hypothesis in regards to neuropsychiatric dysfunction.

Effect of Cage-Induced Stereotypies on Measures of Affective State and Recurrent Perseveration in CD-1 and C57BL/6 Mice.

Stereotypies are abnormal repetitive behaviour patterns that are highly prevalent in laboratory mice and are thought to reflect impaired welfare. Thus, they are associated with impaired behavioural inhibition and may also reflect negative affective states. However, in mice the relationship between stereotypies and behavioural inhibition is inconclusive, and reliable measures of affective valence are lacking. Here we used an exploration based task to assess cognitive bias as a measure of affective valence and a two-choice guessing task to assess recurrent perseveration as a measure of impaired behavioural inhibition to test mice with different forms and expression levels of stereotypic behaviour. We trained 44 CD- 1 and 40 C57BL/6 female mice to discriminate between positively and negatively cued arms in a radial maze and tested their responses to previously inaccessible ambiguous arms. In CD-1 mice (i) mice with higher stereotypy levels displayed a negative cognitive bias and this was influenced by the form of stereotypy performed, (ii) negative cognitive bias was evident in back-flipping mice, and (iii) no such effect was found in mice displaying bar-mouthing or cage-top twirling. In C57BL/6 mice neither route-tracing nor bar-mouthing was associated with cognitive bias, indicating that in this strain these stereotypies may not reflect negative affective states. Conversely, while we found no relation of stereotypy to recurrent perseveration in CD-1 mice, C57BL/6 mice with higher levels of route-tracing, but not bar-mouthing made more repetitive responses in the guessing task. Our findings confirm previous research indicating that the implications of stereotypies for animal welfare may strongly depend on the species and strain of animal as well as on the form and expression level of the stereotypy. Furthermore, they indicate that variation in stereotypic behaviour may represent an important source of variation in many animal experiments.

Experimenter effects on behavioral test scores of eight inbred mouse strains under the influence of ethanol.

ight standard inbred mouse strains were evaluated for ethanol effects on a refined battery of behavioral tests in a study that was originally designed to assess the influence of rat odors in the colony on mouse behaviors. As part of the design of the study, two experimenters conducted the tests, and the study was carefully balanced so that equal numbers of mice in all groups and times of day were tested by each experimenter. A defect in airflow in the facility compromised the odor manipulation, and in fact the different odor exposure groups did not differ in their behaviors. The two experimenters, however, obtained markedly different results for three of the tests. Certain of the experimenter effects arose from the way they judged behaviors that were not automated and had to be rated by the experimenter, such as slips on the balance beam. Others were not evident prior to ethanol injection but had a major influence after the injection. For several measures, the experimenter effects were notably different for different inbred strains. Methods to evaluate and reduce the impact of experimenter effects in future research are discussed.

1991 University of Michigan Football Team

1985 UM Track Team

Top Row: grad. sss't. Mike Shea, Rollie Hudson, Calvin Goodson, Mark Lewis, Joe Schmidt, Ed Korschewitz, John McCarthy, asst. coach James Henry

3rd Row: trainer Dave Ralston, Rick Swilley, Butch Starmack, Scott Crawford, Omar Davidson, Dan Smith, Bill Davis, asst. coach Ron Warhurst

2nd Row Thomas Wilcher, Paul Mistor, Ron Simpson, John Chambers, Todd Steverson, Chris Brewster, Jeff Costello, Mike Krauss, John McCleary, asst. coach Kent Bernard.

Front Row: Rob Grainger, Tony Krpan, Vince Bean, Bill Brady, Head Coach Jack Harvey, captain Bob Boynton, Dave Hall, Chris Fitzpatrick, Dave Meyer.

Women's Volleyball Team, 1985, UM

Back Row: assistant coach John Rizzardini, Toni Hall, Heather Olsen , Julie Marshall(?), Lisa Vahi, Karen Kunszelman,?, coach Barb Canning

Front Row: Lana Ranthum, Marie Ann Davidson, Jayne Hickman, ?, Andrea Williams, Jennifer Hickman

Women's Volleyball Team, 1986, UM

Front Left, clockwise: Laura Melvin, Lisa Vahi, head coach Joyce Davis, Heather Olson, Kim Clover, Carla Hunter, Jayne Hickman, Karen Marshall, Debi Bailey, Marie-Anne Davidson, student assistant Jenne Hickman, assistant coach Peg McCarthy, Julie Marshall, Toni Hall, Wendy Raber

Women's Volleyball Team, 1987, UM

Back Row: asst. coach Peg McCarthy, Kim Clover, Carla Hunter, Marie-Ann Davidson, Julian Sturm, Karen Marshall, head coach Joyce Davis

Front Row: trainer Kara Mensel, Julie Marshall, co-captain Heather Olsen, co-captain Lisa Vahi, Laura Melvin, Wendy Raber

UM Women's Volleyball Team, 1992

Front Row: Erica Badran-Grycan, Fiona Davidson, Kathy Richards, Chris White, Hayley Lorenzen, Tarnisha Thompson, Michelle Horrigan, LaShawnda Crowe,

Back Row: assistant coach Mora Kanim, Kathy Jacobsen, Julie Scherer, Robyn Read, head coach Greg Giovanazzi, JoAnna Collias, Suzy O' Donnell, Aimee Smith, Marita McCahill, assistant coach Jennifer Dhaenens.

Women's Volleyball Team, 1993, UM

Front Row: Karen Jacobsen, Marita McCahill, Michelle Horrigan, Fiona Davidson, JoAnna Collias, Erica Badran-Grycan.

Second Row: athletic trainer Keli Coughlin, Robin Read, Aimee Smith, Suzy O'Donnell, Julie Scherer.

Third Row: Jessica Ping, Shareen Luze, Darlene Recker, Shannon Brownlee, Erin McGovern.

Back Row: manager Dave Fleming, assistant coach Mora Kanim, head coach Greg Giovanazzi, assistant coach Jennifer Dhaenens, statistician Duane Storti

Not Pictured: Ramona Cox, Meg Akehi

José,

Mode of access: Internet.

Ballads and songs . --

Mode of access: Internet.