Meeting Abstract
Mammals are typically used to study injury induced behavioral changes, but their convoluted nervous systems make it difficult to examine underlying mechanisms. To advance treatments for humans and animals alike, new models are needed to look at conserved mechanisms of pain. In this study I use the neurologically-complex invertebrate, cuttlefish (Sepia bandensis) to examine the effect of peripheral injury on learning and spontaneous exploration. I hypothesize that, like mammals, cuttlefish exhibit changes to both behaviors in the short term (3h), after experiencing an injury. Furthermore, I hypothesized that injury-induced behavior could be modulated by increasing endogenous serotonin using single, 10nM dose of an SSRI, Fluoxetine. Cuttlefish were fed one shrimp, dosed with Fluoxetine or vehicle, before they received either injury to the tips of feeding tentacles under light sedation, or light sedation with no injury (sham). I used two assays to quantify injury-induced behaviors of cuttlefish; an open-field task that measured spontaneous exploratory behavior, and cognitive task that measures learned inhibition of food capture attempts on inaccessible prey. There were no differences in spontaneous exploratory behaviors between the injured and non-injured groups, however, injured cuttlefish learned more rapidly compared to non-injured cuttlefish. Cuttlefish that received both injury and 10nM of Fluoxetine showed a learning curve more similar to that of non-injured and non-drugged cuttlefish. Unexpectedly, non-injured/drugged cuttlefish had a faster learning curve more closely resembling injured cuttlefish. With these data, I conclude that injury changes cognition, but not spontaneous behavior of cuttlefish, and that there may be other effects of Fluoxetine learning that result in a non-linear interaction with injury.
