Sex-specific exploration accounts for differences in valence learning in male and female mice.

ABSTRACT: Valence, the quality by which something is perceived as good or bad, appetitive or aversive, is a fundamental building block of emotional experience and a primary driver of adaptive behavior. Pavlovian fear and reward learning paradigms are widely used in preclinical research to probe mechanisms of valence learning but with limited consideration of sex as a biological variable despite known sex differences in neuropsychiatric disorders associated with impaired valence. Here, we compare appetitive-only, aversive-only, and mixed-valence cue-outcome Pavlovian conditioning paradigms in male and female mice to dissociate effects of context, valence, and salience in a sex-specific manner. Using a data-driven approach to identify behaviors indicative of valence learning in an unbiased manner, we

SUBMITTER: Schuler H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12829990 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature