Dynamic scale-dependent modulation of behavioral patterns induced by caloric or temporal feed restriction

KEMBRO, J.M.; FLESIA, A. G.; NIETO, P.S.

Conferencia; Animal Behaviour Live: Annual Online Conference 2021; 2021

The temporaldynamics of behavior is complex because it reflects processesoccurring at different temporal scales, susceptible to modulation byexternal factors. For example, locomotor activity in mammals presentscircadian rhythms and other dynamics (i.e. other rhythms andlong-range -“fractal”- auto-correlation), which in turn aredifferentially affected by external cues (i.e: feeding schedules).Identifying changes in such behavioral patterns is important tounderstand behavioral adaptation to the environment, yet there are noclear tools to characterize and quantify them. Herein, we analyzebehavioral time series derived from mice exposed to different feedingparadigms (i.e: temporal or caloric restriction, TR or CRrespectively). We evaluate the dynamic changes of feeding andwheel-running behavior throughout a 42-day experiment. Specifically,we applied a 5-step wavelet approach to detect and characterizebehavioral rhythms and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) to assesschanges in auto-correlation properties at smaller scales. We foundthat the feeding paradigm imposed to mice differentially modulatesthe acrophase and strength (power) of circadian rhythms in bothrunning wheel and feed intake activity. TR and CR paradigms duringdaytime induce circadian rhythm weakness in feed intake, consistentwith a transitional state in which the phase of these rhythmsabruptly changes following the food onset. We detect ultradianrhythms in feed-intake and wheel running time series and theirrobustness depends on the behavior studied, feeding paradigm andindividual differences. Long-range correlations were observed in thewheel-running, but not in feed-intake for scales <100min and thecorrelation properties were susceptible to be modulated by thefeeding paradigm. We conclude that the feed paradigm affects thetemporal dynamics of behavior over a broad range of temporal scale,highlighting the diversity of behavioral patterns beyond thecircadian activity, building up the behavioral architecture thatcomposes these complex systems.p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120% }