RT Journal Article
T1 Temozolomide treatment inhibits spontaneous motivation for exploring a complex object in mice: a potential role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in ‘curiosity’.
A1 Mañas-Padilla, María del Carmen
A1 Melgar-Locatelli, Sonia
A1 Vicente, Lucía
A1 Gil-Rodríguez, Sara
A1 Rivera-González, Patricia
A1 Rodríguez-Pérez, Celia
A1 Castilla-Ortega, María Estela
K1 Neurobiología del desarrollo
K1 Curiosidad (Psicología)
AB Intrinsic exploratory biases are an innate motivation for exploring certain types of stimuli or environments over others, and they may be associated with cognitive, emotional, and even personality-like traits. However, their neurobiological basis has been scarcely investigated. Considering the involvement of the hippocampus in novelty recognition and in spatial and pattern separation tasks, this work researched the role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) in intrinsic exploratory bias for a perceptually complex object in mice. Spontaneous object preference tasks revealed that both male and female C57BL/6J mice showed a consistent unconditioned preference for exploring “complex”—irregular—objects over simpler ones. Furthermore, increasing objects’ complexity resulted in an augmented time of object exploration. In a different experiment, male mice received either vehicle or the DNA alkylating agent temozolomide (TMZ) for 4 weeks, a pharmacological treatment that reduced AHN as evidenced by immunohistochemistry. After assessment in a behavioral test battery, the TMZ-treated mice did not show any alterations in general exploratory and anxiety-like responses. However, when tested in the spontaneous object preference task, the TMZ-treated mice did not display enhanced exploration of the complex object, as evidenced both by a reduced exploration time—specifically for the complex object—and a lack of preference for the complex object over the simple one. This study supports a novel role of AHN in intrinsic exploratory bias for perceptual complexity. Moreover, the spontaneous complex object preference task as a rodent model of “curiosity” is discussed.
PB Wiley
YR 2022
FD 2022-12-14
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/26445
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/26445
LA eng
NO Mañas‐Padilla, M. C., Melgar‐Locatelli, S., Vicente, L., Gil‐Rodríguez, S., Rivera, P., Rodríguez‐Pérez, C., & Castilla‐Ortega, E. (2023). Temozolomide treatment inhibits spontaneous motivation for exploring a complex object in mice: A potential role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in “curiosity”. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 531(4), 548-560.
NO This study was funded by Grant PID2020-114374RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (to C.R.-P. and E.C.-O.). Author P.R. holds a “Miguel Servet I” research contract from the National System of Health, EU-ERDF-ISCIII (CP19/00068). Authors M.C.M.-P. and S.G.-R. hold predoctoral grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (FPU17/00276 to M.C.M.-P. and FPU18/00941 to S.G.-R.). The authors acknowledge the IBIMA's common research support structure—ECAI—of animal experimentation and behavior (“Centro de Experimentación y Conducta Animal”; University of Malaga) for maintenance of the mice and the ECAI of Image for the use of the microscope. We are especially thankful to María Visitación Jacinto Hernández and Vanesa Jiménez Gálvez for their valuable contribution to the behavioral experiments and to Lourdes Sánchez Salido and Ana Mar Gálvez Callejón for their technical support.Open access funding provided by University of Málaga CBUA.
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 20 ene 2026