Survivals of minimal traumatic brain injury (mTBI) do not show clear structural brain defects, but frequently suffer from longlasting cognitive deficits, emotional difficulties and behavioral disturbances. In the present study we investigated the effects of experimental closed head mTBI induced by a weight drop device on spatial and non-spatial learning and the anxiety-like behaviors in mice. Mice were tested 7 or 30 days post-injury for cognitive function and anxiety-like behaviors. Some of these tests have never been used in the past for mTBI research. In the elevated plus maze not behavior change was shown 7 days post injury. However, 30 days post injury the mTBI induced significant anxiety like behavior in the mice. In the dry maze, the mTBI mice demonstrated significant difficulties in their learning trials as well as in the probe part, 7 and 30 days post injury. The mice’s preference in the Y- maze was also significantly affected by the injury. The mTBI animals showed impaired learning compared with the sham group both 7 and 30 days post injury. In an additional, non-spatial test, measured by the novel object recognition test, revealing a significantly higher objects-exploration time by the control mice, 7-days post injury. Thirty days post mTBI, the injured mice spent significantly less time next to the new objects compared to the control mice. The results of this study further demonstrate that mTBI cause a cognitive impairment and anxiety-like behaviors in the injured mice that are similar to symptoms reported for the human “post-concussion syndrome”.
JavaScript jest wyłączony w Twojej przeglądarce internetowej. Włącz go, a następnie odśwież stronę, aby móc w pełni z niej korzystać.