Favila, N., Gurney, K. and Overton, P. orcid.org/0000-0003-4334-261X (2021) Blocking NK1 receptors disrupts the sequential and temporal organization of chain grooming in rats. Neuropharmacology, 196. 108716. ISSN 0028-3908
Abstract
The basal ganglia are a group of sub-cortical structures believed to play a critical role in action selection and sequencing. The striatum is the largest input structure of the basal ganglia and contains the neuropeptide substance P in abundance. Recent computational work has suggested that substance P could play a critical role in action sequence performance and acquisition, but this has not been tested experimentally before. The aim of the present study was to test how blocking substance P's main NK1-type receptors, affected the sequential and temporal organization of spontaneous behavioral patterns. We did this in rats by focusing on the grooming chain, an innate and highly stereotyped ordered sequence. We performed an open field experiment in which NK1 receptor antagonist L-733,060 was injected intraperitoneally in rats at two doses (2 and 4 mg/kg/ml), in a within-subject counterbalanced design. We used first order transition probabilities, Variable Length Markov Models, entropy metrics and T-pattern analysis to evaluate the effects of L-733,060 on sequential and temporal aspects of spontaneously ordered behavioral sequences. Our results suggest that blocking NK1 receptors made the transitions between the grooming chain elements significantly more variable, the transition structure of the grooming bouts simpler, and it increased the probability of transitioning from active to inactive states. Overall, this suggest that blocking substance P receptors led to a general break down in the fluency of spontaneous behavioral sequences, suggesting that substance P could be playing a key role in the implementation of sequential patterns.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Neuropharmacology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Action sequences; Chunking; Substance P; NK1 receptors; Grooming chain; Markov analysis |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ROSETREES TRUST UNSPECIFIED |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 15 Jul 2021 16:48 |
Last Modified: | 14 Jul 2022 00:14 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2021.108716 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:176249 |