Sex differences in avoidance behavior after perceiving potential risk in mice

Sayaka Yokota,
Yusuke Suzuki,
Keigo Hamami,
Akiko Harada and
Shoji KomaiEmail author View ORCID ID profile

Behavioral and Brain Functions201713:9

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12993-017-0126-3

Received: 11 January 2017

Accepted: 25 April 2017

Published: 5 May 2017

Abstract

Background

Sex has been considered as a potential factor regulating individual behaviors in different contexts. Recently, findings on sex differences in the neuroendocrine circuit have expanded due to exact measurements and control of neuronal activity, while findings on sex differences in behavioral phenotypes are limited. One efficient way to determine the miscellaneous aspects of a sexually different behavior is to segment it into a set of simpler responses induced by discrete scenes.

Methods

In the present study, we conducted a battery of behavioral tests within a variety of unique risky scenes, to determine where and how sex differences arise in responses under those scenes.

Results

A significant sex difference was observed in the avoidance responses measured in the two-way active and the passive avoidance tests. The phenotype observed was higher mobility in male mice and reduced mobility in female mice, and required associative learning between an escapable risk and its predictive cue. This was limited in other scenes where escapable risk or predictive cue or both were missing.

Conclusions

Taken together, the present study found that the primary sex difference occurs in mobility in the avoidance response after perceiving escapable risks.