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Novelty and anxiolytic drugs dissociate two components of hippocampal theta in behaving rats

Wells, CE; Amos, DP; Jeewajee, A; Douchamps, V; Rodgers, RJ; O’Keefe, J; Burgess, N; Lever, C

Novelty and anxiolytic drugs dissociate two components of hippocampal theta in behaving rats Thumbnail


Authors

CE Wells

DP Amos

A Jeewajee

V Douchamps

RJ Rodgers

J O’Keefe

N Burgess



Abstract

Hippocampal processing is strongly implicated in both spatial cognition and anxiety and is temporally organized by the theta rhythm. However, there has been little attempt to understand how each type of processing relates to the other in behaving animals, despite their common substrate. In freely moving rats, there is a broadly linear relationship between hippocampal theta frequency and running speed over the normal range of speeds used during foraging. A recent model predicts that spatial-translation-related and arousal/anxiety-related mechanisms of hippocampal theta generation underlie dissociable aspects of the theta frequency–running speed relationship (the slope and intercept, respectively). Here we provide the first confirmatory evidence: environmental novelty decreases slope, whereas anxiolytic drugs reduce intercept. Variation in slope predicted changes in spatial representation by CA1 place cells and novelty-responsive behavior. Variation in intercept predicted anxiety-like behavior. Our findings isolate and doubly dissociate two components of theta generation that operate in parallel in behaving animals and link them to anxiolytic drug action, novelty, and the metric for self-motion.

Citation

Wells, C., Amos, D., Jeewajee, A., Douchamps, V., Rodgers, R., O’Keefe, J., …Lever, C. (2013). Novelty and anxiolytic drugs dissociate two components of hippocampal theta in behaving rats. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(20), 8650-8667. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.5040-12.2013

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date May 1, 2013
Deposit Date Jul 23, 2013
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Neuroscience
Print ISSN 0270-6474
Electronic ISSN 1529-2401
Publisher Society for Neuroscience
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 33
Issue 20
Pages 8650-8667
DOI https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.5040-12.2013

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