Social defense ethogram in C57BL/6 mice

• Grant number: 16/20482-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2016
• End date: February 28, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Morphology - Anatomy
• Principal Investigator: Simone Cristina Motta
• Grantee: Marco Aurélio dos Santos
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The agonistic behaviors of attack and defense have distinct, nonrandom topographies, i.e., they have evolutionarily developed as functionally correlated patterns, a system that allows winners usually without the death of the defeated conspecific. Different strains might show different patterns of behavior. Since the behavioral patterns of the mouse strain that will be used in the project have never been appraised in the intruder position, it's necessary to assess how distinctive those patterns are. Moreover, we don't wish that knowledge for its own sake only; actually, it will be a tool for further investigation of the neural pathways responsible for and triggered by certain behaviors. However, to know what is 'new' in behavior, first and foremost one must know what is within the basal range, the default; to do so, we will perform the ethogram of a set of key behaviors. In this study, therefore, we aim at making an ethogram of the social defense in the mouse strain C57Bl/6 in the resident-intruder paradigm, so that it can be available as a basis for the investigation of the neural bases of the fear. (AU)