Dissociation between spontaneously emitted and apomorphine-induced stereotypy in Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii

Stereotyped behavior is repetitive, topographically invariant motor activity that lacks an obvious function. We have previously characterized the spontaneous and persistent stereotypies that occur in deer mice housed in standard laboratory cages. Providing these animals with enriched environments markedly reduces their vulnerability to develop stereotypic behavioral repertoires, thus enabling us to generate behaviorally distinct (stereotypic and nonstereotypic) mice of the same species. As stereotypic behaviors are readily induced by systemic administration of a dopamine (DA) agonist, the present study tested whether apomorphine would induce stereotypies in environmentally enriched (nonstereotypic) deer mice that were topographically similar to the stereotypies that are spontaneously emitted by standard-caged (stereotypic) deer mice. The effects of apomorphine were also evaluated in the standard-caged (stereotypic) deer mice. DA agonist-induced behaviors in nonstereotypic mice included stereotypies that were largely topographically distinct from spontaneously emitted stereotypies; apomorphine failed to produce statistically significant elevations in two of the three stereotypic behaviors typical of standard-caged deer mice. Furthermore, there was no evidence of increased DA receptor sensitivity in stereotypic mice. Thus, environmentally related stereotypy is distinct from systemically administered DA agonist-induced stereotypy, and is not exacerbated by such drug treatment. The results obtained do provide support, however, for a limited involvement of the DA system in the mediation of these behaviors.