AUTHOR=Typlt Marei , Mirkowski Magdalena , Azzopardi Erin , Ruth Peter , Pilz Peter K., Schmid Susanne TITLE=Habituation of reflexive and motivated behavior in mice with deficient BK channel function JOURNAL=Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience VOLUME=7 YEAR=2013 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/integrative-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnint.2013.00079 DOI=10.3389/fnint.2013.00079 ISSN=1662-5145 ABSTRACT=

Habituation is considered the most basic form of learning. It describes the decrease of a behavioral response to a repeated non-threatening sensory stimulus and therefore provides an important sensory filtering mechanism. While some neuronal pathways mediating habituation are well described, underlying cellular/molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood. In general, there is an agreement that short-term and long-term habituation are based on different mechanisms. Historically, a distinction has also been made between habituation of motivated versus reflexive behavior. In recent studies in invertebrates the large conductance voltage- and calcium-activated potassium (BK) channel has been implicated to be a key player in habituation by regulating synaptic transmission. Here, we tested mice deficient for the pore forming α-subunit of the BK channel for short-term and long-term habituation of the acoustic startle reflex (reflexive behavior) and of the exploratory locomotor behavior in the open field box (motivated behavior). Short-term habituation of startle was completely abolished in the BK knock-out mice, whereas neither long-term habituation of startle nor habituation of motivated behavior was affected by the BK deficiency. Our results support a highly preserved mechanism for short-term habituation of startle across species that is distinct from long-term habituation mechanisms. It also supports the notion that there are different mechanisms underlying habituation of motivated behavior versus reflexive behavior.