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Cognitive and behavioral alterations in neurodevelopmental and pharmacological animal models of schizophrenia
Malenínská, Kristýna ; Stuchlík, Aleš (advisor) ; Blahna, Karel (referee) ; Telenský, Petr (referee)
Establishing reliable animal models of psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia is essential to better understand the neurobiological, behavioural and genetic basis of the disorder and to develop new drugs with greater therapeutic efficacy. These models allow the study of different aspects of schizophrenia, including positive, negative and cognitive symptoms similar to schizophrenia. All available animal models of schizophrenia can be divided into four different categories of induction: developmental, pharmacological, genetic and lesion-induced. However, none of these models perfectly replicates all aspects of schizophrenia in humans, and it is therefore necessary to precisely define the influence of each manipulation. This thesis focuses on the study of pharmacological and developmental animal models of schizophrenia, with an emphasis on examining the cognitive and behavioral changes associated with the disorder. Specifically, we investigated the pharmacological induction of schizophrenia- like symptoms by acute administration of MK-801, developmental models of two interventions combining the maternal immune response following poly(I:C) administration and subsequent stress of offspring in adolescence, and repeated prenatal and neonatal administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In the...
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Time and space perception in laboratory rats
Malenínská, Kristýna ; Stuchlík, Aleš (advisor) ; Horáček, Jiří (referee)
Time and spatial information are always two inseparable entities because if anyone moves in space it also moves in time. However, spatial orientation is much more investigated than interval timing. Time perception is for survival of the individual also very important and it probably works together with spatial perception. Despite this, only a few researches have been focused on this topic and therefore we aimed on evolving a new task which would test use of both of these informations and interaction between them. This new version of AAPA task was tested on Carousel Maze where we usually test only spatial orientation and memory. However, we added also a timing part to our version of the task because we assume that in this task when we turn off the light the rats have to use more interval timing than spatial information. Next part of the task included application of drugs which should compromise timing strategies. We have demonstrated use of different strategies when animals are in darkness and light whereby parts in light depend on spatial orientation and parts in darkness depend more on timing strategies. The drugs didn't disrupt rat's abilities which can be caused by very complex design or by inappropriately chosen doses. Key words time perception, spatial navigation, cognitive function
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Medial parts of neocortex and behavior
Malenínská, Kristýna ; Stuchlík, Aleš (advisor) ; Brožka, Hana (referee)
Neocortex forms an important and the most developed part of the mammalian brain. Its medial part consists of parts, which also include cortex of cingulate gyrus and its subregions. These subregions also contain anterior cingulate cortex and retrosplenial cortex, whose role in brain functions and diseases will be introduced more closely. We know only very little about a brain and is functioning and that's why it is constantly being researched. We separate the anterior cingulate cortex into two parts based on their functions- the cognitive (dorsal part) and the emotional (ventral part). They differ in functions and also in the connections with other parts. One of its layers contains a special type of neuronal cells- spindle cells. The most researched part in brain functioning is error detection, conflict monitoring, registration of pain and it also includes functions in motor skills and emotions. Moreover, we can find functional and anatomical changes there, which are connected to brain diseases- schizophrenia, cingulate epilepsy or akinetic mutism. The retrosplenial cortex occupies dorsal part of cingulate cortex. Architecturally, it is characterized with its distribution to granular and agranular part. Functionally, it can be classified to paths which modulate and process emotions, it has an...
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