Identifying inflection signals through continuous long-term monitoring of changes in affect and expectations in genetic rat models for affective disorders (B04)

• Subject Area: Biological Psychiatry
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 521379614

Rodent models for affective disorders that enable the detection of symptom changes and their long-term trajectories with high temporal resolution are warranted. To this aim, we apply a gene x environment interaction approach by exposing genetic rat models to environmental risk factors. Our novel experimental strategy aimed at the identification of symptom changes includes continuous and intermittent long-term monitoring of locomotor activity and/or social distancing in a semi-natural environment, together with the assessment of concomitant changes in key cognitive-emotional mechanisms, namely affect and expectations, in real time through measuring ultrasonic vocalizations.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 393: Trajectories of Affective Disorders: Cognitive-emotional Mechanisms of Symptom Change
• Applicant Institution: Philipps-Universität Marburg
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Carsten Culmsee; Professor Dr. Markus Wöhr