Université de Fribourg

Behavioural food-anticipation in clock genes deficient mice: confirming old phenotypes, describing new phenotypes

Mendoza, Jorge ; Albrecht, Urs ; Challet, Etienne

In: Genes, Brain and Behavior, 2010, vol. 9, p. -

Animals fed daily at the same time exhibit circadian food-anticipatory activity (FAA), which has been suggested to be driven by one or several food-entrainable oscillators (FEOs). FAA is altered in mice lacking some circadian genes essential for timekeeping in the main suprachiasmatic clock (SCN). Here we confirmed that single mutations of clock genes Per1−/− and...

Université de Fribourg

Ethanol self-administration and reinstatement of ethanol-seeking behavior in Per1Brdm1 mutant mice

Zghoul, Tarek ; Abarca, Carolina ; Sanchis-Segura, Carles ; Albrecht, Urs ; Schumann, Gunter ; Spanagel, Rainer

In: Psychopharmacology, 2007, vol. 190, no. 1, p. 13-19

Rationale Alcohol consumption shows circadian rhythmicity, i.e., alcohol preference and intake change with circadian time. Circadian rhythmicity is controlled by a biological clock, which has been shown to govern behavioral, physiological, and hormonal processes in synchronization with internal as well as external cues. Molecular components of the clock include circadian clock genes such as...

Université de Fribourg

mPer1 and mPer2 mutant mice show regular spatial and contextual learning in standardized tests for hippocampus-dependent learning

Zueger, M. ; Urani, A. ; Chourbaji, S. ; Zacher, C. ; Lipp, H. P. ; Albrecht, Urs ; Spanagel, R. ; Wolfer, D. P. ; Gass, P.

In: Journal of Neural Transmission, 2006, vol. 113, no. 3, p. 347-356

Learning and memory, like most physiological processes, seem to be under the control of circadian rhythm. The recently cloned mPer1 and mPer2 genes play an important role in the regulation of the circadian rhythm. In this study, we tested mPer1 and mPer2 mutant mice in two different learning and memory paradigms, a water-maze place navigation task and contextual...