TY - JOUR
T1 - Single mild traumatic brain injury results in transiently impaired spatial long-term memory and altered search strategies
AU - Marschner, Linda
AU - Schreurs, An
AU - Lechat, Benoit
AU - Mogensen, Jesper
AU - Roebroek, Anton
AU - Ahmed, Tariq
AU - Balschun, Detlef
PY - 2019/6/3
Y1 - 2019/6/3
N2 - Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can lead to diffuse neurophysical damage as well as cognitive and affective alterations. The nature and extent of behavioral changes after mTBI are still poorly understood and how strong an impact force has to be to cause long-term behavioral changes is not yet known. Here, we examined spatial learning acquisition, retention and reversal in a Morris water maze, and assessed search strategies during task performance after a single, mild, closed-skull traumatic impact referred to as “minimal” TBI. Additionally, we investigated changes in conditioned learning in a contextual fear-conditioning paradigm. Results show transient deficits in spatial memory retention, which, although limited, are indicative of deficits in long-term memory reconsolidation. Interestingly, minimal TBI causes animals to relapse to less effective search strategies, affecting performance after a retention pause. Apart from cognitive deficits, results yielded a sub-acute, transient increase in freezing response after fear conditioning, with no increase in baseline behavior, an indication of a stronger affective reaction to aversive stimuli after minimal TBI or greater susceptibility to stress. Furthermore, western blot analysis showed a short-term increase in hippocampal GFAP expression, most likely indicating astrogliosis, which is typically related to injuries of the central nervous system. Our findings provide evidence that even a very mild impact to the skull can have detectable consequences on the molecular, cognitive and affective-like level. However, these effects seemed to be very transient and reversible.
AB - Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can lead to diffuse neurophysical damage as well as cognitive and affective alterations. The nature and extent of behavioral changes after mTBI are still poorly understood and how strong an impact force has to be to cause long-term behavioral changes is not yet known. Here, we examined spatial learning acquisition, retention and reversal in a Morris water maze, and assessed search strategies during task performance after a single, mild, closed-skull traumatic impact referred to as “minimal” TBI. Additionally, we investigated changes in conditioned learning in a contextual fear-conditioning paradigm. Results show transient deficits in spatial memory retention, which, although limited, are indicative of deficits in long-term memory reconsolidation. Interestingly, minimal TBI causes animals to relapse to less effective search strategies, affecting performance after a retention pause. Apart from cognitive deficits, results yielded a sub-acute, transient increase in freezing response after fear conditioning, with no increase in baseline behavior, an indication of a stronger affective reaction to aversive stimuli after minimal TBI or greater susceptibility to stress. Furthermore, western blot analysis showed a short-term increase in hippocampal GFAP expression, most likely indicating astrogliosis, which is typically related to injuries of the central nervous system. Our findings provide evidence that even a very mild impact to the skull can have detectable consequences on the molecular, cognitive and affective-like level. However, these effects seemed to be very transient and reversible.
KW - Concussion
KW - Contextual fear conditioning
KW - Immunoblotting
KW - Morris water maze
KW - Spatial learning
U2 - 10.1016/j.bbr.2018.02.040
DO - 10.1016/j.bbr.2018.02.040
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 29499284
AN - SCOPUS:85043986221
SN - 0166-4328
VL - 365
SP - 222
EP - 230
JO - Behavioural Brain Research
JF - Behavioural Brain Research
ER -