Kurt Hoffman

Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala · Departamento de Biología

Schizophrenia has been associated with premorbid poor educational performance and low educational attainment (EA). However, some studies have found positive associations between psychotic disorders and excellent scholastic performance. In the present study, we examined the association between EA and several clinical and nonclinical characteristics...

Maternal behavior in rabbits is unusual among mammals. During pregnancy, the doe builds a nest and after parturition the only maternal behavior displayed is crouching over the litter to nurse the pups. More remarkably is that the nursing visit of the mother occurs just once a day with a periodicity of slightly less than 24 h. This visit lasts less...

Rabbit maternal behavior (MB) impacts meat and fur production on the farm, survival of the species in the wild, and pet welfare. Specific characteristics of rabbit MB (i.e., three-step nest building process; single, brief, daily nursing bout) have been used as models for exploring particular themes in neuroscience, like obsessive-compulsive actions...

Introduction: : Subsets of pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) respectively have been associated with respiratory tract infections and alterations in the intestinal microbiome. Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndromes (PANS) refers to the sudden onset of neuropsychiatric symptoms that are trigge...

Early life social interactions in gregarious mammals provide an important source of stimulation required for the development of species-typical behaviors. In the present study, complete deprivation of maternal and littermate contact through artificial rearing was used to examine the role of early social stimulation on copulatory behavior and the ej...

The sural sensory nerve, which innervates the lower extremities, is a useful model for studying the structural and functional characteristics of peripheral sensory nerves. Its development and myelination extends across the early postnatal through to the juvenile stage. Myelination of the sural nerve depends on interactions between axons and Schwann...

Background Schizophrenia (SCH) and bipolar disorder (BD) have both shared and unique genetic risk factors and clinical characteristics. The aim of the present study was to identify potential risk factors significantly associated with SCH, relative to a BD reference group. Methods Data were obtained from medical records of patients that entered a m...

Intracerebroventricular (icv) administration of oxytocin (OT) induces robust lordosis behavior (lordosis quotient and lordosis intensity) in estrogen-primed rats. The present study explored the hypothesis that the OT-Prostaglandin E2-GnRH pathway (a pathway produced in astrocytes) is involved in the facilitation of lordosis behavior by icv infusion...

The present mini-review focuses on animal models of schizophrenia that have explored the effects of cannabidiol (CBD; a non-psychoactive component of cannabis) or the pharmacological manipulation of the endocannabinoid system on behavioral and cognitive outcome measures. First, results of some relevant clinical studies in this area are summarized,...

Background. The doubling time is the best indicator of the course of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the present investigation was to determine the impact of policies and several sociodemographic factors on the COVID-19 doubling time in Mexico. Methods. A retrospective longitudinal study was carried out across March–August, 2020. Policies...

The present chapter focuses on the neurobiology of obsessive-compulsive experiences in non-pathological and pathological contexts. The first part of the chapter reviews selected case studies of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) acquired as a result of neurological injury, obsessive-compulsive experiences experimentally evoked in otherwise healthy...

The dataset describes regional brain c-Fos expression and a component of maternal nest building behavior (“straw carrying”) in 5 late term pregnant rabbits that had been allowed to interact with straw (a nest building material) for a discrete period (30 min), during which repetitive straw carrying behavior was initiated. Animals were sacrificed for...

This review evaluates current knowledge about obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), with the goal of providing a roadmap for future directions in research on the psychopharmacology of the disorder. It first addresses issues in the description and diagnosis of OCD, including the structure, measurement, and appropriate description of the disorder and...

An injection of unesterified estradiol (E2) facilitates receptive behavior in E2 benzoate (EB)‐primed, ovariectomized female rats when it is administered intraventricularly (ICV) or systemically. The present study tested the hypothesis that inhibitors of protein kinase A (PKA), protein kinase G (PKG), or the Src/mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MA...

Aims: We hypothesized that copulation-induced temporary anti-nociception in female rats is mediated by the activation of central and/or peripheral oxytocin receptors. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the effects of intraperitoneal (ip), intrathecal (it), and intra-cerebroventricular (icv) administration of an oxytocin receptor antagonist (atos...

We briefly review current approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of OCD, noting their lack of a strong theoretical foundation. In keeping with the Research Domain Criteria project (RDoC) calls for reconceptualizing psychopathology in ways that better link up with normal brain systems, we advance an adaptationist, brain-network perspective on OCD...

Nest building behavior in the pregnant rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) can serve as a model for compulsions in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Previous work showed that the "straw carrying" phase of nest building (during which the rabbit repeatedly collects straw in its mouth, carries it into the nest box and deposits it there, and then returns...

Subtle gender differences in cognition arise due to the action of sex hormones during brain development, and are shaped by social influences. The sexes also differ with respect to vulnerability to specific classes of psychopathology. Keywords Schizophrenia, Psychoses, Brain, Gender differences.

Introduction: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe neuropsychiatric illness estimated to affect between 1–3% of the population. In today’s literature, there are a number well-validated and convincing animal models of OCD described. Areas covered: Herein, the authors look at the role that animal models of OCD (including transgenic models,...

Early adverse experiences disrupt brain development and behavior, but little is known about how such experiences impact on the development of the peripheral nervous system. Recently, we found alterations in the electrophysiological and histological characteristics of the sensory sural (SU) nerve in maternally-deprived, artificially-reared (AR) adul...

In 1962, Carlos Beyer, John Tindal, and Charles Sawyer published the study “Electrophysiological study of projections from mesencephalic central gray matter to forebrain in the rabbit” in the journal Experimental Neurology. For Carlos, it would be the first of many (nearly 50) published studies involving the European rabbit (Oryctolaguscuniculus) a...

Maternal care frequently includes the construction of a burrow or nest where mothers will raise their young. Delays in the timing of such complex sequences of building behavior might potentially interfere with mothers’ successful reproduction. By analyzing a long-term data set (11 years) from a study on European rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus, we te...

Bacillus thuringiensis is a bacteria known for its bioinsecticidal toxins and it has been proposed as an alternative in the treatment of several parasites that infect domestic animals (helminths, ticks, mites). In this work, we evaluated the clinical efficiency of the Bacillus thuringiensis GP532 strain in the treatment of six rabbits naturally inf...

Estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα) dimerizes with unliganded progesterone receptor (PR) in target tissues to trigger genomic and non-genomic effects. In ovariectomized rats the antiprogestin RU486 or antisense nucleotides against PR antagonize estradiol-induced sexual receptivity. We determined the relevance of unliganded PR for the expression of estrog...

We review mammalian maternal behavior, its hormonal regulation, and the neurobiology involved in the onset and offset of specific behavioral patterns. We introduce topics that have flourished recently, e.g., the impact of maternal behavior on the maternal brain. We discuss neuroanatomical changes occurring in the ‘experienced’ mother's brain that t...

Female sexual behavior is the result of a complex interaction between hormones, receptors, and cellular mechanisms that interact in different brain circuits to induce behavior. The present chapter describes molecular, cellular, physiological, and behavioral aspects that are important for the expression of female sexual behavior. In previous edition...

Female sexual behavior is the result of a complex interaction between hormones, receptors, and cellular mechanisms that interact in different brain circuits to induce behavior. The present chapter describes molecular, cellular, physiological, and behavioral aspects that are important for the expression of female sexual behavior. In previous edition...

Depressive disorders are among the most common of the mental illnesses. Approximately 16% of the population will suffer from major depressive disorder (MDD) or persistent depressive disorder sometime during their lifetime. Depressive and anxiety disorders are fall within the so-called “internalizing” spectrum of psychiatric syndromes, which are cha...

Obsessive–compulsive and related disorders comprise neuropsychiatric syndromes that involve intrusive thoughts, preoccupations, or sensory phenomena, and behaviors that are persistent, repetitive, stereotyped, and ritualistic. As is the case for anxiety disorders, obsessive–compulsive and related disorders represent a spectrum of conditions. Disord...

Anxiety disorders, like depressive disorders, are quite common, with a lifetime prevalence of approximately 29% in the United States. Anxiety and depressive disorders are often comorbid, with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) having a particularly close relationship to depression. These internalizing disorders are suggested to represent an anxiety...

The categorical view of mental illness, which implies the existence of discrete neuropsychiatric disorders that are distinguishable from each other as well as from the healthy state, is evolving into a more realistic “dimensional” view. The dimensional view explains neuropsychiatric symptoms in terms of natural phenotypical variance along certain i...

Animal models are a central component of studies aimed at understanding the biologic bases of mental illnesses, and are essential for efforts to develop new, more effective therapies that are so desperately needed to treat them. An evolution—or revolution—in the way that mental illness is conceptualized and diagnosed is underway, as it is becoming...

We propose that maternal nest building in the female laboratory rabbit is a useful model for compulsions in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This repetitive behavior comprises collecting straw, depositing it into the nest box, and then returning to collect more straw. We reasoned that if “straw carrying” behavior is homologous to compulsive beh...

Maternal care frequently includes the construction of a burrow or nest where mothers will raise their young. Delays in the timing of such complex sequences of building behavior might potentially interfere with mothers’ successful reproduction. By analyzing a long-term data set (11 years) from a study on European rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus, we te...

Introduction: Dimensional models of psychopathology describe mental illness in terms of natural variance along certain phenotypic dimensions that are continuous with normal. Vulnerability to psychopathology might arise when certain adaptive psychophysiological processes, conserved between humans and non-human animals, function outside of their "no...

Modeling Neuropsychiatric Disorders in Laboratory Animals serves as a guide for students and basic investigators in the fields of behavioral sciences, psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, and other professionals interested in the use of animal models in preclinical research related to human neuropsychiatric disorders. The text focuses on the ratio...

Studies in humans indicate that acute administration of sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, provokes schizophrenic-like symptoms in healthy volunteers, and exacerbates existing symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia. These and other findings suggest that NMDA receptor hypofunction might participate in the pathophysiol...

Parasitic diseases are important in animal production because they cause high economic losses. Affected animals often exhibit stereotypical behavioral alterations such as anorexia and inactivity, among others. Among the diseases that commonly affect domestic rabbits is mange, which is caused by the mite Psoroptes cuniculi. Therefore, within the con...

Introduction: The extensive comorbidity among psychiatric disorders underscores the need for a fundamental change in the way psychopathology is classified. An alternative 'dimensional' system classifies disorders based on relationships with respect to heritability patterns and comorbidity. It is from this 'dimensional view' that mouse modeling of...

The spontaneous response to novelty is the basis of one-trial object recognition tests for the study of object recognition memory (ORM) in rodents. We describe an object recognition task for the rabbit, based on its natural tendency to scent-mark ("chin") novel objects. The object recognition task comprised a 15min sample phase in which the rabbit...

Nest building behavior in the pregnant female rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a model for compulsive behavior in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This behavior comprises a cycle of repeated, stereotyped components (collecting straw, entering nest box and depositing the straw there, returning to collect more straw), which itself is repeated 80...

Introduction: Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating condition with limited treatment options. OCD is heterogeneous with respect to the content of obsessions and compulsions and their underlying motivation, among other characteristics. Animal models have provided important insights into the pathophysiology of OCD. Areas covered: T...

The rat prostate comprises dorsal, ventral and lateral lobes that are morphologically and biochemically distinct. Lesions to these structures are expected to affect the quality of the ejaculate and male fertility. In experiment 1, we analyzed ejaculate parameters of males that had chemical lesions of the dorsal or ventral lobes. At pre-lesion and a...

Estrous female domestic rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) display scent marking ("chinning") and sexual receptivity. Mating induces ovulation, which occurs approximately 12h later, and also decreases chinning and receptivity. In the present study, we explored the participation of mating-associated stimuli, ovulation, and the progesterone receptor (PR...

"Chinning" is a stereotyped scent marking behavior of domestic rabbits, in which the animal rubs the underside of its chin against objects in order to deposit scent gland secretions. Although the long-term maintenance of chinning requires circulating gonadal steroids, little is known about the acute regulation of this behavior. To define specific e...

In the rat, social isolation during the early postnatal period disrupts the adult function of certain neuroendocrine and neurobehavioral systems. In the present study, we assessed the effects of peer and maternal contact during this period on the adult expression of aggression, maternal behavior, and the behavioral response to novelty. Female rat p...

Little is known of the neural mechanisms underlying the subjective experience of task completion and the subsequent inhibition of behavior. The preparturient female rabbit displays a stereotyped "straw carrying" behavior, in which she repeatedly collects straw and carries it into a nest box (located within the home cage), resulting in a finished ma...

In the pregnant domestic rabbit, scent marking ("chinning") and sexual behavior are inhibited by ovarian-derived progesterone (P). In order to distinguish behavioral effects of P that are PR-dependent from those mediated by its ring A reduced metabolites, we administered P, P+RU486 (PR antagonist), chlormadinone acetate (CA, synthetic progestin tha...

During estrus, the female domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) displays scent marking behavior (chinning), which is immediately inhibited after mating, temporarily recovers, and then declines and remains inhibited across pregnancy. Chinning is inhibited by progesterone (P) and the activation of the progesterone receptor (PR), but it is unlikely...

In this review, we compare the neuroendocrine control of estrous behavior in the rabbit, a reflex ovulator, and the rat, a more commonly studied spontaneous ovulator. Although the hormonal control of estrous behavior in both species is similar, notable differences include the absence of a stimulatory effect of progesterone (P) on sexual behavior in...

In estrogen-primed female rats, vaginal cervical stimulation (VCS) provided by male intromissions or by an experimenter enhances estrous behaviors exhibited by females during subsequent mating with a male. We tested the hypothesis that alpha(1)-adrenergic receptors, acting via the nitric oxide-cGMP-protein kinase G pathway, mediate VCS-induced faci...

The female rabbit is an exceptional experimental model to define mechanisms by which progesterone (P) controls the expression of reproductive behaviors. In the rabbit, the rise in P levels during pregnancy inhibits estrous scent marking ("chinning"), stimulates the excavation of a nest burrow ("digging"), and primes behaviors later used for nest co...

A syndrome of motoric and neuropsychiatric symptoms comprising various elements, including chorea, hyperactivity, tics, emotional lability, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, can occur in association with group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal (GABHS) infection. We tested the hypothesis that an immune response to GABHS can result in behavioral abnorm...

Neuronal death occurs during normal development and disease and can be regulated by steroid hormones. In the hawkmoth, Manduca sexta, individual accessory planta retractor (APR) motoneurons undergo a segment-specific pattern of programmed cell death (PCD) at pupation that is triggered directly and cell autonomously by the steroid hormone 20-hydroxy...

The tip of each proleg in Manduca sexta larvae bears a dense array of mechanosensory hairs termed planta hairs (PHs), each innervated by a single sensory neuron (termed a PH-SN) located in the underlying epidermis. In the CNS, axon terminals of PH-SNs make direct, excitatory, nicotinic cholinergic synapses with proleg retractor motoneurons includin...

Accessory planta retractor (APR) motoneurons of the hawk moth, Manduca sexta, undergo a segment-specific pattern of programmed cell death (PCD) 24 to 48 h after pupal ecdysis (PE). Cell culture experiments show that the PCD of APRs in abdominal segment 6 [APR(6)s] is a cell-autonomous response to the steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) and inv...

Ecdysteroid hormones trigger the programmed cell death (PCD) of a segmental subset of accessory planta retractor (APR) motoneurons at pupation in the moth, Manduca sexta. APRs from abdominal segment four [APR (4)s] survive through the pupal stage, whereas homologous APR(6)s die 24-48 h after pupal ecdysis (PE) (the shedding of the larval cuticle),...

Ecdysteroid hormones trigger the programmed cell death (PCD) of a segmental subset of accessory planta retractor (APR) motoneurons at pupation in the moth. Manduca sexta. APRs from abdominal segment four [APR(4)s] survive through the pupal stage, whereas homologous APR(6)s die 24-48 h after pupal ecdysis (PE) (the shedding of the larval cuticle), i...

The mature oligodendrocyte, though able to divide under certain circumstances, has been regarded as incapable of changing into a phenotypically plastic cell type. To further explore this question, we developed an in vitro system in which a virtually pure population of early postnatal canine oligodendrocytes were cultured in a serum free, defined me...

Typescript. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 1999. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-184).