Behavioral Differences in a Mouse Model of Bipolar Disorder
Education Level
Undergraduate
Faculty Advisor(s)
Professor Victoria Heimer-McGinn
Academic Department(s)
Psychology
Symposium Date
2024
Abstract
Bipolar Disorder (BD) is an undertreated chronic mood disorder characterized by episodes of mania and depression, leading to significant shifts in mood, concentration, and activity levels. A genetic model for BD, involving the mutation of the ClockΔ19 gene, provides insights into the rapid mood cyclicity found in human populations. The ClockΔ19 mouse model is a circadian rhythm-based model which features BD-like phenotypes, such as increased risk-taking behavior, addictive tendencies, hyperactivity, mood cycling and disrupted circadian clocks. ClockΔ19 mice display mood cyclicity on a 24-hour basis. Our goal is to further validate the behavioral phenotypes of the ClockΔ19 mouse model as a pre-clinical model for BD. A crucial factor in checking for validity in mouse models has been to develop assays that can be used for continuous automated home-cage assessments to analyze complex mouse behaviors. Home-cage monitoring (HCM) allows us to test the overall behavior of a mouse to validate the ClockΔ19 model for further studies on treatments for BD. In our lab, we are looking for trends in activity that further reassure the phenotypic profile of the Clock19 mouse model, such as an increase in hyperactivity, disturbed sleep, and mood cyclicity, similar to what is seen in humans with BD. Our preliminary findings show that a far deeper understanding of mouse mutant phenotypes can be established by monitoring behavior in their home- cage over one or more light and dark cycles. While there are notable trends of sex-specific and phenotypic differences in behaviors, our sample size currently, is considerably small. Ultimately, we hope to understand the correlation of specific behaviors with genetic and phenotypic variations by using automated and multimodal measurements enabled by HCM.
Recommended Citation
Heimer-McGinn, Victoria R. and Hernandez, Daniella, "Behavioral Differences in a Mouse Model of Bipolar Disorder" (2024). Student Research Symposium. 31.
https://docs.rwu.edu/studentresearchsymposium/31
Comments
This research was presented at the 2024 Rhode Island Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium, held on Friday, July 26, at the University of Rhode Island and supported by RI-INBRE.