The Effect Of Environment On The Problem Solving Of Mouse And The Underlying Neural Mechanism

The present natural and cultural environments are changing constantly.This requires that all species,including humans,to response to changing environment flexibly.When the original solution can't solve these newly appeared problems,innovation is one of the most effective way to solve the problem.Like mankind,animals also have the ability to solve the novel problems.By means of innovation,animals can promote the ability to survive in the complex and changing environment,find more new resources or use of the existing resources in a more effective way.Besides,the previous studies suggested that environment also can influence the higher-order cognitive processing and physiological activities of the animals.In addition,the different levels of GABA in the brain has significant influence to higher-order cognitive function of innovation processing,such as:attention,working memory,learning,etc.However,whether the GABA play an enhanced or inhibition role on cognitive function is still have considerable controversy.Therefore,the study of animal innovation not only has important significance,but also can provide the reference of the study of human creativity and inspiration.The study of the animal innovation are emerging in an endless stream in western countries,however,studies of this aspect in China still in the initial state.Based on the consideration to the theoretic value and the practice significance of these problems.We probed the relationship between the environment,animal innovation and y-aminobutyric acid(GABA)via the animal behavior and biochemical test.Focus on this purpose,we designed the following two studies.The first study mainly investigated the relationship between the environment and the ability of problem solving of the mice.Environment can be divided into physical living environment(including rich and poor physical living environment)and the social environment(including gregarious and solitary social environment).Forty male mouse pups were divided randomly into four groups:rich and solitary environment group(n=10),poor and solitary environment group(n=10),rich and gregarious environment group(n=10),solitary and gregarious environment group(n=10).After two months environmental treatment,we tested the performance of the mice of the four different environment treatment group in the attentional set-shifting task(ASST)and novel task.The results suggested that the rich physical living environment can improve the general problem solving ability of the mice,and the gregarious social environment will reduce the general problem solving ability of the mice;The physical living and social environment could affect general problem solving ability of the mice.However,the novel task solving ability of the mice might only be affected by the physical living environment.The second study mainly investigated the relationship between the environment,animal innovation and GABA of the mice.On the basis of the first study,in order to fully investigate the changes of GABA in the forehead and hippocampus of the mice.We divided the second study into three sub-topic:Experiment 2a using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)to test the content of GABA of the forehead and hippocampus of the mice.The result suggested that:(1)the content of GABA in the forehead of the mice in the rich and solitary environment group was significant lower than the other groups and there was no significant difference in the content of GABA in the forehead of the mice among the remaining three groups.(2)There was no significant relationship between the content of GABA in the hippocampus of the mice and the environment;Experiment 2b using the immunohistochemical staining to test the the cell density of GABAergic neuron in the forehead and hippocampus of the mice.The results were consistent with experiment 2a.Experiment 2c using the Western blotting to test content of GABA specificity receptor—GABAA Ral in the forehead and hippocampus of the mice.The results suggested there is no significant difference in content of GABAA Ral in the forehead of the mice between the rich and gregarious environment group and solitary and gregarious environment group,the others were significantly related to each other.The ranks of the content of GABAA Ral in the forehead of the mice from the higher to lower was rich and solitary environment group,rich and gregarious environment group,poor and solitary environment group,solitary and gregarious environment group.In conclusion,the environment treatment could induce the change of the levels of GABA in the forehead of the mice,which suggested that GABA might be the underlying neural mechanism of the ability of problem solving of the mice and play a inbibitional effect.Finally,we reflected on the disadvantages of this study and proposed some potential suggestions for future research.The possible theoretical and practical significance of this findings was discussed.