Study of the effects of sleep deprivation by the modified multiple platform method on novel object recognition and habituation tasks

• Grant number: 11/14804-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2011
• End date: September 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Débora Cristina Hipólide
• Grantee: Juliana Raya
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Many studies have shown that sleep deprivation (SD) affects the performance of animals in memory tasks. Many of these tasks employ aversive stimuli or require the intense physical activity of the animal to perform the task, factors that may interfere with the analysis of the SD effects. Another important factor is the duration of SD. Studies performed in our laboratory showed that SD impairs memory when employed for long periods, a condition that produces changes in several physiological systems, and consequently interferes with specific effects of SD on memory. Therefore, the development and study of alternative models for the memory assessment of sleep-deprived animals are of great importance to the area. Thus, this study aims to assess the effects of SD through the modified multiple platform method on the memory of mice. For this assessment, we will perform the novel object recognition and habituation tasks. First, the animals will be submitted to the acquisition of the novel object recognition task, in which each animal is placed in an arena with three different objects for 5 minutes. This procedure will be repeated 5 times with 15 minutes intervals. After 24 hours, there will be the test phase, in which animals are exposed to three new objects, two identical to the previous, and a different one. The habituation task also consists of two phases. In the first one (exposition) the animal is placed in an open field arena for 10 minutes to explore the environment. After 24 hours, the animals will be submitted to the second phase (re-exposition), in which the above procedure is repeated. In both phases rearing behavior and locomotor activity will be recorded. The SD will be performed immediately after the acquisition phase of each memory task and will last for 12 hours.(AU)