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Behavioral Characterization of Lsamp-/- Mice Open Access

Behavioral Characterization of Lsamp-/- MiceA unifying characteristic to the oft-debated limbic system concept has recently been discovered in the neurodevelopmental guidance protein LAMP (limbic system associated member protein, Lsamp the gene encoding). Lsamps targeted deletion provides a new avenue of research into the etiology of limbic-system associated disorders. Previous work has found neuroanatomical organization, sensory and motor development to be normal in Lsamp knock-out animals (Lsamp-/-), but distinct behavioral differences from wild-type in their reduced anxiety and heightened reactivity to novelty. The current study utilized a light/dark task, Elevated Pluz Maze, general activity, and a discrimination and reversal cognitive paradigm to further characterize these animals.Across behavioral measures Lsamp-/- exhibited decreased anxiety and increased activity, and combined with previous social behavior abnormalities found, could forward them as a good model for studying the molecular mechanisms behind several psychiatric disorders. Unexpectedly there was no perceptible differences in almost all cognitive measures. This may be due to the deletion of Lsamp not resulting in structural changes that affect these mental processes, or that the problem set did not appropriately tap into the possibly affected functions, or did so only mildly. This work begins to satisfy the need for Face and Construct validity of the Lsamp-/- , with the goal of eventual predictive validity as a mouse model of human pathology.

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