6 research outputs found
The effects of early olfactory experience and inter-species cross-fostering on the sexual preferences of mice
This study on the effects of early experience in
mice consists of two different sets of experiments.
The first part is an investigation on the role
of odours in the ontogeny of sexual preferences. It is
preceeded by a review of the state of our knowledge of the
role of odours in the social behaviour of rodents. MAINARDI
et al. found in 1965 that female mice, reared with
artificially perfumed parents, spent more time with males
scented with the same perfume when sexually mature. The
aims of my study were to repeat these investigations using
better. controlled conditions and with a new experimental
set-up, and to extend' the research by testing the hypothesis
of "sensitive periods" for olfactory stimuli in mice.
Two strains were used ~ Balb/C and câ
â
/Black.
Experimental animals were scented by daily spraying with
geraniol (cââHââO) on the mother, litter and nest using an
aerosol spray. A first group was scented from birth till
the 10th day of life, a second from day 11 to day 20, a
third from day 21 to day 30. The animals were tested for
their preference between normal conspecifics and a geraniol-
scented one, when they were between 3 and 4 months of
age. The improvements on MAINARDI's Technique consisted
of, 1°) a more reliable apparatus which offered a wider
range of choice between 5 stimulus animals, 2°) better
control of the "spontanous response of the mice towards the
experimental odour, 3°) a control of the spontaneous responses
of the mice in choice of compartments within the
apparatus itself and towards the individual stimulus mice
without the presence of geraniol, 4°) the use of two
strains as control for genetic variability.
I have not been able to replicate MAINARDI's results.
Two alternative conclusions are suggested. First
there is nd effect of early experience on the attitude of
these strains towards geraniol. The odour is mildly aversive
to them and remains so even if they are exposed to it
early in life. Secondly, if taking a trend into account:
exposure to geraniol for the first 10 days of life accentuates
aversiveness in adult life.
The second ,part of the experimental work consists
of an investigation of the effects of cross-fostering
mice (Balb/C) and voles (Clethrionomys glareolus britan,
nicus). Two control groups were employed, one of mice
and voles reared normally, the others of mice and voles
cross-fostered within the ir own species. All vole pups
fostered to mice died but 55% of the mice fostered to voles
survived although they were significantly lighter than
controls at weaning. Intraspecific fostering of mice did
not affect their mortality rate or body weight. The following
code will be used: control (normal) Balb (NB),
Balb-fostered Balbs (BFB), vole-fostered Balbs (VFB), control
voles (NV), vole-fostered voles (VFV). The animals
were submitted to various tests.
1) Small field test (between day 21 and 28): recording of
various activities in a small breeding cage. The general
trend in the fostered animals was an increase of
more "sedentary" activities (grooming, pausing, chewing)
and digging, and a corresponding decrease of activities
such as sniffing/walking and rearing.
2) Open field test (between day 45 and 52): the main
trend was a drop in ambulation in BFB and VFB compared
to NB, and in VFV compared to NV. The rearing scores
for the open field showed less significant differences,
but the trends were the same as in the ambulation scores.
Urination, defecation and grooming seemed to be
unaffected by fostering. The test demonstrates that
changes produced are mainly due to the act of fostering
itself.
3) Emergence test (various ages): this test measures the
time taken to emerge from a hide beneath which the animals
could shelter. BFB and VFB males are significantly
more reluctant to leave the hide than NB. The females
showed no significant differences.
4) Social preference test (between day 60 and 67): NB
prefer Balbs, NV prefer voles, and VFB prefer voles
(their foster-species). However, BFB and VFV show a
strong drop in their preference for their own species,
revealing again an effect due to the act of fostering
itself, and thus forcing one to qualify a simple interpretation
in terms of sexual imprinting for the changed
behaviour of VFB
How polyelectrolyte adsorption depends on history: A combined Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in attenuated total reflection and surface forces study
We present a systematic study of how adsorption history affects the thickness, surface forces, and interfacial rheology of a model cationic polymer. The polymer was quaternized poly-4-vinylpyridine, QPVP (weight-average degree of polymerization n(w) = 325 and 98% quaternized with ethyl bromide). The main comparisons concerned one-step adsorption from solution at a variable salt concentration up to 0.5 M NaCl, versus two-step adsorption (initial adsorption from buffer solution without added salt, then NaCl added later). The aqueous solutions were buffered at pH = 9.2 such that the surfaces (mica in the case of surfaces forces (SFA) experiments, oxidized silicon in the case of in situ infrared (FTIR-ATR) experiments) in each case carried a large negative charge. The SFA and FTIR-ATR experiments gave consistent estimates of the amount of polymer adsorbed, confirming the expectation that adsorption should be driven by electrostatic attraction to the surface of large opposite charge. The adsorbed amount showed little dependence on path, validating the common assumption of equilibration in this respect. However the layer thickness measured by surface forces, the shear nanorheology response at a given surface force, and the dichroism of pendant side groups of the polymer all showed a pronounced dependence on the path to reach the adsorbed state. We interpret the measurements to suggest that two-step adsorption produces an inhomogeneous layer comprised of a dense layer of segments closest to the solid surface and a sparse outer layer. In particular, two-step adsorption produced thicker layers and a greater tendency to decouple shear forces from those that resist compression in the normal direction, thereby lessening the shear forces at a given level of normal force