Sex differences in appetitive learning of mice

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Animal Behavior
• Comparative Psychology

Background:

• Sex differences in cognitive abilities are well-documented but their underlying mechanisms, particularly motivational influences, require further investigation.
• Appetitive and avoidance learning paradigms offer distinct insights into motivation and cognitive processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate sex-based differences in learning abilities in ddY mice using both appetitive and avoidance tasks.
• To determine if observed sex differences in learning are related to motivational factors associated with food acquisition versus simple feeding.

Main Methods:

• Comparison of male and female ddY mice performance in two appetitive tasks (lever-press, 8-arm radial maze) and two avoidance tasks (shuttle box, light-dark T-maze).
• Assessment of learning acquisition and performance levels across different developmental stages (juvenile vs. adult).

Main Results:

• Male mice demonstrated significantly superior performance in appetitive learning tasks compared to female mice, with differences most pronounced during the acquisition phase.
• No significant sex differences were observed in the avoidance learning tasks.
• Sex differences in appetitive learning were absent in juvenile mice and did not persist in adult mice that acquired the lever-press response as juveniles.

Conclusions:

• A distinct sex difference in appetitive learning emerges in adult mice, specifically during the acquisition phase.
• These findings suggest that the observed sex difference in learning is driven by variations in motivation for food hunting rather than feeding, impacting learning acquisition.
• Motivation plays a critical role in mediating sex differences in cognitive performance in certain learning contexts.