In addition to the behavioral effects of stress, the researchers studied several immunological effects of stress. One measure studied is stress-induced decline in FosB positive cells in the FosB/ΔFosA expression. This portion of the study only included seven mice in each of the six groups, and lower levels indicate more stress. The mean levels of FosB+ cells for each combination of environment and stress are shown in Table 8.6.

Table 8.6

(a) In each of the three environments (IE, SE, and EE), which sample group (HC or SD) has a lower average level of FosB+ cells? Does this match what we would expect? Within each of the no-stress and stress groups (HC and SD) separately, which environment has the highest average level of FosB+ cells?
(b) The sum of squares for groups is SSG = 118,286 and for error is SSE = 75,074. Complete a test to determine if there is a difference in mean FosB+ levels between the groups.

Exercise 6.257 on page 424 introduces a study showing that exercise appears to offer some resiliency against stress. In the study, mice were randomly assigned to live in an enriched environment (EE), a standard environment (SE), or an impoverished environment (IE) for several weeks. Only the enriched environment provided opportunities for exercise. Half the mice then remained in their home cage (HC) as control groups while half were subjected to stress (SD) by being placed repeatedly with a very aggressive mouse. All the mice in SD exhibited acute signs of stress during these brief exposures to €˜€˜mouse bullies.€ The researchers were interested in how resilient the mice were in recovering from the stress after the mouse bullying stopped.

Exercise 6.257

Many studies have shown that people who engage in any exercise have improved mental health over those that never exercise. In particular, even a small amount of exercise seems to confer some resilience to stress. Most of these studies, by necessity, have been observational studies. A recent experiment with mice moves us one step closer to determining a causal association. In the study, mice were randomly assigned to either an enriched environment (EE) where there was an exercise wheel available or a standard environment (SE) with no exercise options. After three weeks in the specified environment, for five minutes a day for two weeks, the mice were each exposed to a €˜€˜mouse bully€€”a mouse that was very strong, aggressive, and territorial. At the end of the two weeks, the mice in the SE group exhibited maladaptive, depressive-like, and anxietylike behavior across a wide spectrum of activities. This was not true of the mice in the EE group; they behaved similarly to mice that had never had the stress-inducing bully experience. In particular, one measure of mouse anxiety is amount of time hiding in a dark compartment, with mice that are more anxious spending more time in darkness. The amount of time spent in darkness during one trial is recorded for all the mice and is shown in Table 6.22 and available in StressedMice. Test to see if mice that have spent time in an enriched environment with options for exercise spend significantly less time in darkness after a stress-inducing experience.

Table 6.22

Transcribed Image Text:

EE:HC IE:SD SE:SD IE:HC SE:HC IE:SD SE:SD EE:SD 21 86 129 178 68 152 Environment Time in Darkness (seconds) 203 391 280 138 227 Enriched 359 184 231 Standard 394 477 439 428 488 454