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Sex-specific interactions between procedural and deliberative decision-making systems in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Anderson, R.; Hart, D. W.; Sweis, B.; Sherman, M. A.; Thomas, M.; Redish, D. D.; Lesne, S.

2021-03-17 neuroscience
10.1101/2021.03.16.435712 bioRxiv
Show abstract

A central question in aging and Alzheimers disease (AD) is when and how neural substrates underlying decision-making are altered. Here we show that while APP mice, a commonly used mouse model of AD, were able to learn Restaurant Row, a complex neuroeconomic decision-making task, they were significantly impaired in procedural, habit-forming, aspects of cognition and relied heavily on deliberation when making decisions. Surprisingly, these behavioral changes are associated with amyloid-beta (A{beta}) pathology and network remodeling in the striatum, a key brain region involved in procedural cognition. Furthermore, APP mice and control mice relied on distinct sex-specific strategies in this neuroeconomic task. These findings provide foundational pillars to examine how aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases impact decision-making across sexes. They also highlight the need for complex behavioral tasks that allow for the dissociation of competing neurally-distinct decision-making circuits to get an accurate picture of changes in neurodegenerative models of human disease.

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