(783.7) Closed-head injury increased platform-mediated avoidance in rats

Poster Board Number: C73
Introduction: AAA has separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – 10:15 am – 11:15 am
Even poster #s – 11:15 am – 12:15 pm

Sian Rodriguez-Rosado (University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus), Osmarie Martínez-Guzmán (University of Puerto Rico Medical Science Campus), Mauricio Cáceres-Chacón (University of Puerto Rico Medical Science Campus), Melissa Rivera-López (University of Puerto Rico Medical Science Campus), Héctor Haddock-Martínez (University of Puerto Rico Medical Science Campus), Demetrio Sierra-Mercado (University of Puerto Rico Medical Science Campus)

The most common form of brain injury, concussion, is frequently seen in contact sports and military combat. Converging lines of evidence suggest that concussion may impair fear-related behaviors, such as platform-mediated avoidance. In platform-mediated avoidance, rats are conditioned in an operant chamber to auditory tones co-terminating with a mild foot shock. An acrylic platform in the opposite corner of the sucrose-delivering bar allowed rats to avoid the shocks. The effects of concussion on platform-mediated avoidance remain unclear. Concussion can be modeled in rodents with a closed head injury (CHI). In our model, a guide tube is placed above the head of anesthetized rats, and a weight is dropped through the tube. In the current study, we hypothesize that CHI will impair avoidance behavior. We observed that rats that underwent a CHI spent more time on the platform throughout the test session during the absence of the auditory tone (p=0.0127), even though they had learned that the absence of the tone was a safe period. These results suggest that concussive-like brain injury results in excess avoidance behavior.

NIGMS/NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE II).
RCMI Seed monies and Pilot Project Program 8G12MD007600.
Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD).
Puerto Rico Center Clinical Translational Research Consortium (PRCTRC).
National Science Foundation CREST (undergraduate amp;amp; graduate fellowships).
Neuro-ID undergraduate research fellowship NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke R21NS119991