Découverte des séquences comportementales récurrentes dans l'activité sociale du rat Wistar: soutien possible aux études sur les troubles du spectre de l'autisme

Aperçu: G.M.

Cette étude a été entreprise pour étudier si, dans les activités interactives du rat, des séquences récurrentes d'événements comportementaux pourraient être identifiées et comment et dans quelle mesure chaque composante de la paire est impliquée. À cette fin, l'analyse multivariée du motif temporel (t-pattern) a été appliquée aux interactions sociales de 9 paires de rats Wistar mâles testés en champ ouvert. 

Les résultats montrent que l'activité de deux rats Wistar en interaction est structurée sur la base de plusieurs séquences temporelles récurrentes. En outre, les interactions sociales semblent être exprimées aussi par des t-patterns où les éléments comportementaux sont réalisés par des animaux qui ne semblent pas interagir. Un soutien de l'analyse du modèle t aux études sur les troubles du spectre de l'autisme est proposé.

Neurosci Lett. 2017 May 17. pii: S0304-3940(17)30419-6. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.05.031.

Discovery of recurring behavioural sequences in Wistar rat social activity: possible support to studies on Autism Spectrum Disorders

Casarrubea M¹, Faulisi F², Cudia A³, Cancemi D³, Cardaci M⁴, Magnusson MS⁵, Crescimanno G⁶.

Author information

1

Dept. of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences (Bio.Ne.C.), Human Physiology Section "Giuseppe Pagano", Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy; Technologies of Knowledge Interdepartmental Center (C.I.T.C.), University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.

2

Dept. of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences (Bio.Ne.C.), Human Physiology Section "Giuseppe Pagano", Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.

3

Dept. of Psychological Sciences, Pedagogy and Formation, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.

4

Dept. of Psychological Sciences, Pedagogy and Formation, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy; Technologies of Knowledge Interdepartmental Center (C.I.T.C.), University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.

5

Human Behavior Laboratory, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.

6

Dept. of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences (Bio.Ne.C.), Human Physiology Section "Giuseppe Pagano", Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy; Technologies of Knowledge Interdepartmental Center (C.I.T.C.), University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: giuseppe.crescimanno@unipa.it

Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate whether, in rat interactive activities, recurring sequences of behavioural events might be identified and how and to what extent each component of the pair is involved. To this aim, the multivariate temporal-pattern (t-pattern) analysis was applied to the social interactions of 9 pairs of male Wistar rats tested in open field. Interactive activities were classified into intra- and inter-subjects. Quantitative evaluations showed that intra-subject behavioural elements represented 62.37% and inter-subject ones 37.63% of the comprehensive behaviour. T-pattern analysis revealed the presence of 221 different t-patterns organized in four different categories: containing exclusively inter-subject elements; containing both inter- and intra-subject elements; consisting of rat 1 and rat 2 intra-subject elements and, finally, consisting of intra-subject elements carried out by one of the two subjects. Results show that the activity of two interacting Wistar rats is structured on the basis of several recurring temporal sequences. Moreover, social interactions appear to be expressed also by t-patterns where the behavioural elements are carried out by animals seemingly not interacting. A support of t-pattern analysis to studies on Autism Spectrum Disorders is proposed.


Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.



PMID: 28527716

DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.05.031