ArticleBiological psychiatry2010
The female urine sniffing test: a novel approach for assessing reward-seeking behavior in rodents.
Article in Biological psychiatry, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 96 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
96 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 193 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Sex-specific GABAergic microcircuits that switch vulnerability into resilience to stress and reverse the effects of chronic stress exposure.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
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- Deep phenotyping reveals CRH and FKBP51-dependent behavioral profiles following chronic social stress exposure in male mice.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
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- Hippocampal contextualization of social rewards in mice.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Sex-specific GABAergic microcircuits that switch vulnerability into resilience to stress and reverse the effects of chronic stress exposure.Research square · 2024Article
- Paraventricular Thalamus Neuronal Ensembles Encode Early-life Adversity and Mediate the Consequent Sex-dependent Disruptions of Adult Reward Behaviors.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Rodent tests of depression and anxiety: Construct validity and translational relevance.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2024Review
- The nucleus accumbens in reward and aversion processing: insights and implications.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Review
- Role and mechanism of PVN-sympathetic-adipose circuit in depression and insulin resistance induced by chronic stress.EMBO reports · 2023Article
- Medial prefrontal cortical PPM1F alters depression-related behaviors by modifying p300 activity via the AMPK signaling pathway.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2023Article
- Impaired Ventrolateral Periaqueductal Gray-Ventral Tegmental area Pathway Contributes to Chronic Pain-Induced Depression-Like Behavior in Mice.Molecular neurobiology · 2023Article
- Changes in social, sexual, and hedonic behaviors in rats in response to stress and restoration by a negative allosteric modulator of α5-subunit containing GABA receptor.Behavioural brain research · 2023Article
36 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAbnormal hedonic behavior is a key feature of many psychiatric disorders. Several paradigms measure reward-seeking behavior in rodents, but each has limitations. We describe a novel approach for monitoring reward-seeking behavior in rodents: sniffing of estrus female urine by male mice, along with number of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) emitted during the test.
methodsThe female urine sniffing test (FUST) was designed to monitor reward-seeking activity in rodents together with tests of helplessness and sweet solution preference. USVs and dopamine release from the nucleus accumbens (NAc) were recorded. Sniffing activity was measured in 1) manipulation-naive C57BL/6J and 129S1/SVImJ mice and Wistar-Kyoto rats; 2) stressed mice; 3) two groups of mice that underwent the learned helplessness paradigm-one untreated, and one treated with the SSRI citalopram; and 4) GluR6 knockout mice, known to display lithium-responsive, mania-related behaviors.
resultsMales from all three strains spent significantly longer sniffing female urine than sniffing water. Males emitted USVs and showed significantly elevated NAc dopamine levels while sniffing urine. Foot-shock stress significantly reduced female urine sniffing time. Compared with mice that did not undergo the LH paradigm, LH males spent less time sniffing female urine, and citalopram treatment alleviated this reduction. Compared with their wildtype littermates, GluR6KO males sniffed female urine longer and showed enhanced saccharin preference.
conclusionsIn rodents, sniffing female urine is a preferred activity accompanied by biological changes previously linked to reward-seeking activities. The FUST is sensitive to behavioral and genetic manipulation and to relevant drug treatment.
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