Effect of Acute and Chronic Buspirone Administration on Communicativeness of Mice with Experience of Defeats in Social Conflicts

摘要

We studied the effect of 5-HT_1A receptor agonist buspirone on behavior of male C57B1/6J mice in the "partition" test, which reflects communicativeness of animals. Single administration of buspirone (1 mg/kg) to intact mice and animals experienced defeats in 20 intermale confrontations impaired their communicativeness, especially in intact animals. On the contrary, administration of buspirone (1 mg/kg) to losers starting from day 5 of intermale confrontations for 2 weeks produced a positive effect and prevented impairment of communicativeness by day 20 of confrontations. The role of brain 5-HT_1A receptors in these processes is discussed.Sociability, including social interactions and communicative behavior of animals, is considered to be an essential form of contacts in mice and rats [6]. In fact, demonstration of any type of behavior in animals is not only genetically determined, but also is modulated by environmental conditions. The pathogenic influence of long-term intermale confrontations on behavior of C57B1/6J mice experiencing everyday defeats in these confrontations was many times demonstrated in our experiments [1,10]. These mice develop generalized anxiety manifesting in numerous tests. Communicativeness estimated in the "partition" test decreases in parallel with increase in anxiety [11]. The inhibitory action of enhanced anxiety on manifestation of normal sociability in animals was also demonstrated by other authors [5,8].