Examinando por Autor "Castilla Ortega, Estela"

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  • Miniatura
    Ítem
    Environmental enrichment alleviates cognitive and psychomotor alterations and increases adult hippocampal neurogenesis in cocaine withdrawn mice
    (John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2023-01) Mañas Padilla, María del Carmen ; Tezanos, Patricia; Cintado, Elisa; Vicente Holgado, Lucía ; Sánchez Salido, Lourdes; Gil Rodríguez, Sara; Trejo, Jose Luis; Santín Núñez, Luis Javier; Castilla Ortega, Estela
    Cocaine is a widely used psychostimulant drug whose repeated exposure induces persistent cognitive/emotional dysregulation, which could be a predictor of relapse in users. However, there is scarce evidence on effective treatments to alleviate these symptoms. Environmental enrichment (EE) has been shown to be associated with improved synaptic function and cellular plasticity changes related to adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN), resulting in cognitive enhancement. Therefore, EE could mitigate the negative impact of chronic administration of cocaine in mice and reduce the emotional and cognitive symptoms present during cocaine abstinence. In this study, mice were chronically administered with cocaine for 14 days, and control mice received saline. After the last cocaine or saline dose, mice were submitted to control or EE housing conditions, and they stayed undisturbed for 28 days. Subsequently, mice were evaluated with a battery of behavioural tests for exploratory activity, emotional behaviour, and cognitive performance. EE attenuated hyperlocomotion, induced anxiolytic-like behaviour and alleviated cognitive impairment in spatial memory in the cocaine-abstinent mice. The EE protocol notably upregulated AHN in both control and cocaine-treated mice, though cocaine slightly reduced the number of immature neurons. Altogether, these results demonstrate that EE could enhance hippocampal neuroplasticity ameliorating the behavioural and cognitive consequences of repeated administration of cocaine. Therefore, environmental stimulation may be a useful strategy in the treatment cocaine addiction.
  • Miniatura
    Ítem
    Temozolomide treatment inhibits spontaneous motivation for exploring a complex object in mice: a potential role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in “curiosity”
    (John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2023-03) Mañas Padilla, María del Carmen; Melgar Locatelli, Sonia; Vicente Holgado, Lucía ; Gil Rodríguez, Sara; Rivera, Patricia; Rodríguez Pérez, Celia ; Castilla Ortega, Estela
    Intrinsic exploratory biases are an innate motivation for exploring certain types of stimuli or environments over others, and they may be associated with cognitive, emotional, and even personality-like traits. However, their neurobiological basis has been scarcely investigated. Considering the involvement of the hippocampus in novelty recognition and in spatial and pattern separation tasks, this work researched the role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) in intrinsic exploratory bias for a perceptually complex object in mice. Spontaneous object preference tasks revealed that both male and female C57BL/6J mice showed a consistent unconditioned preference for exploring “complex”—irregular—objects over simpler ones. Furthermore, increasing objects’ complexity resulted in an augmented time of object exploration. In a different experiment, male mice received either vehicle or the DNA alkylating agent temozolomide (TMZ) for 4 weeks, a pharmacological treatment that reduced AHN as evidenced by immunohistochemistry. After assessment in a behavioral test battery, the TMZ-treated mice did not show any alterations in general exploratory and anxiety-like responses. However, when tested in the spontaneous object preference task, the TMZ-treated mice did not display enhanced exploration of the complex object, as evidenced both by a reduced exploration time—specifically for the complex object—and a lack of preference for the complex object over the simple one. This study supports a novel role of AHN in intrinsic exploratory bias for perceptual complexity. Moreover, the spontaneous complex object preference task as a rodent model of “curiosity” is discussed.