Male and female mice display consistent lifelong ability to address potential life-threatening cues using different post-threat coping strategies.
BMC Biol
; 20(1): 281, 2022 12 15.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36522765
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Sex differences ranging from physiological functions to pathological disorders are developmentally hard-wired in a broad range of animals, from invertebrates to humans. These differences ensure that animals can display appropriate behaviors under a variety of circumstances, such as aggression, hunting, sleep, mating, and parental care, which are often thought to be important in the acquisition of resources, including territory, food, and mates. Although there are reports of an absence of sexual dimorphism in the context of innate fear, the question of whether there is sexual dimorphism of innate defensive behavior is still an open question. Therefore, an in-depth investigation to determine whether there are sex differences in developmentally hard-wired innate defensive behaviors in life-threatening circumstances is warranted.RESULTS:
We found that innate defensive behavioral responses to potentially life-threatening stimuli between males and females were indistinguishable over their lifespan. However, by using 3 dimensional (3D)-motion learning framework analysis, we found that males and females showed different behavioral patterns after escaping to the refuge. Specifically, the defensive "freezing" occurred primarily in males, whereas females were more likely to return directly to exploration. Moreover, there were also no estrous phase differences in innate defensive behavioral responses after looming stimuli.CONCLUSIONS:
Our results demonstrate that visually-evoked innate fear behavior is highly conserved throughout the lifespan in both males and females, while specific post-threat coping strategies depend on sex. These findings indicate that innate fear behavior is essential to both sexes and as such, there are no evolutionary-driven sex differences in defensive ability.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Sinais (Psicologia)
/
Medo
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
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Female
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Humans
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Male
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article