Perception of environmental sensory stimuli induces several kinds of emotions, despite the underlying biological mechanism is still unclear. To clarify the mechanism, we established a useful experimental model in mice. In this present study, we tried to explore the neuronal mechanism of underlying an experience based emotional control using auditory stimulation.
Hearing a sound often elicits an emotion that is induced by not instinct but experience. In light of this sound effect, we tried to examine whether or not the hearing experience actually evokes emotional response using an experimental mouse model, in which mice were exposed to environmental sound stimulation coupled to different housing conditions. We exposed mice to an artificial sound stimulation under each of the pleasant (16 hours) and the unpleasant (8 hours) conditions in a day. After mice were spent in each of the two conditions for several days, we analyzed some physiological parameters of mice while exposing to a sequence of sound stimulations. Among the parameters, presenting a sound coupled to the pleasant housing condition significantly decreased hart beat rate. But in the model study have some unresolved issues, i.e., how long the autonomic effect remained, what evidence showed the mice feels pleasant or unpleasant, what is the difference point between this model and well-known conditioned reflex response.
To resolve these question, we explored difference of signature of acquired brain function between the model mice and control mice with physiological, morphological and biochemical method. Result of this study will be a way to understand neuronal mechanisms of emotional responses induced by sensory perception.