Sex and estrous cycle dependent changes in locomotor activity, anxiety and memory performance in aged mice after exposure of light at night.

Light-at-night (LAN) can affect mammalian behaviour. But, the effects of LAN on aged rodents remain undefined yet. In the present investigation, aged Swiss Albino mice, habituated in regular light-dark cycle, were exposed to bright-light-pulse (1-h) at night on the day of study followed by experimentations for assessment of locomotor activities in the open field, anxiety in the elevated plus maze and short-term memory for novel object recognition (NOR) in the habituated field. Under without-bright-light exposure, (a) aged proestrous females showed greater locomotor activities and less anxiety than in aged diestrous females, (b) aged males showed locomotor activities and anxiety level similar to aged diestrous females and aged proestrous females respectively and (c) all animals failed to retain in object discrimination memory. LAN exposure exhibited the continual failure of such retention of memory while animals showed free and spontaneous exploration with thigmotactic behaviour having no object bias and/or phobia, but time stay in objects by animals altered variably among sexes and stages of estrous cycle. Overall, the LAN caused (a) diminution in locomotor activities, rise in anxiety and failure of memory for recognition of both familiar and novel objects in aged proestrous females, (b) hyperlocomotor activities and reduction in anxiety in both males and diestrous females with the failure of memory for recognition of novel objects only in aged males while diestrous females showed enhanced exploration time to both objects during NOR. Thus, nocturnal behaviour of aged mice varies with sex and estrous cycle and light acts differentially on them.

Gender features and estrous cycle variations of nocturnal behavior of mice after a single exposure to light at night.

Light at night alters behavior and cognitive performances in rodents, the variations of which in gender and stages of reproductive cycle in females are elusive. Young mice habituated in light:dark (12:12h) cycle were given a single exposure of light (100lx) at early night for one hour duration followed by experimentations in open field (closed wall with circular big arena), elevated plus maze and square habituated field for memory performance using novel object recognition task. Light effects were compared with results found during without light conditions. Proestrous females appeared to have greater locomotor activity, less anxiety and better memory performance compared to the diestrous females at night without light exposure. The status of locomotor activity, anxiety and memory performance of male mice at night without light exposure appeared to be comparable to females where the stage of estrous cycle is important to characterize the nocturnal behavior of male mice. Light maximally affected proestrous females with decrease in locomotor activity, increase in anxiety and failure of memory performance. Male and diestrous female mice performed memory performance without alteration of locomotor activity and anxiety after exposure to light where males performed better memory performance with greater locomotor activity and more anxiety compared to that of diestrous females. The present study characterizes the mice nocturnal behavior with and without a single exposure to light stimuli with its gender features and estrous cycle variation. In addition, the study indicates an association of memory performance with locomotor activity and anxiety in mice nocturnal behavior.