A multiple-test study of anxiety-related behaviours in six inbred rat strains

Ramos, André; Berton, Olivier; Mormède, Pierre; Chaouloff, Francis

doi:10.1016/s0166-4328(96)00164-7

Cited by 447 publications

(298 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Our adult findings accord with prior studies in adult rodents (Crawley, 1981;Crawley & Goodwin, 1980;McHugh, Deacon, Rawlins, & Bannerman, 2004;Ramos, Berton, Mormede, & Chaouloff, 1997). The youngest rats reported with use of the black and white box in the literature are early adolescents (P28 -P32).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Comparison of infant and adult rats in exploratory activity, diurnal patterns, and responses to novel and anxiety-provoking environments.

Smith¹,

Morrell²

2007

Behavioral Neuroscience

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Infant rats emerge from the maternal nest at Postnatal Day 17-18 to have their first critical environmental experiences; they may be particularly sensitive to experiences or experimental interventions that can affect their adult capacity. The authors address open questions on 2 components of normative environmental exploration, locomotor activity and response to anxiety-provoking locations, in Postnatal Day 18 infant and Postnatal Day 60 adult rats. The authors compare diurnal patterns of locomotor activity, wheel running, novel and familiar open-field activity, and 2 measures of anxiety. Infants have an equivalent capacity to adults for locomotor activity and wheel running and a fundamentally adult-like diurnal rhythm, except that they do not anticipate light-dark transitions, are more perturbable at their most somnolent, and are more or less active during specific limited phases than adults. Infants initially have a lower rate of locomotor activity in novel environments and have a greater willingness to be active in anxiety-provoking locations. Such differences may allow enhanced gathering of environmental information by the infant and are important to consider in the design of experiments using infants. Keywordsinfant; adult; exploration; activity; anxiety In humans, late childhood and adolescence is the period when drug sampling and experimentation first begins (Brown & Tapert 2004;Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2005;Spear, 2000;Turner, Mermelstein, & Flay, 2004), when clinical mental health disorders requiring pharmacologic intervention, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, emerge (Andersen, 2003;Andersen, Arvanitogiannis, Pliakas, LeBlanc, & Carlezon, 2002), and when the central nervous system (CNS) is readily shaped by many stimuli, often with long-lasting consequences. Ultimately, studies using immature animals may inform us about human disorders with early life origins (e.g., hyperactivity) and may inform the beneficial use of pharmacological treatments. Further, these studies may provide insight into the effects of preadolescent sampling of drugs of abuse (Dahl & Spear, 2004).Prior to achieving sexual maturity between Postnatal Days (P) 55-60, immature rats are either infants (P1-P28) or adolescents (P28-P55; Ojeda & Urbanski, 1988;Spear, 2000). Infant rats are vigilantly kept in the protective maternal nest by their mothers until around P17-P18 (Barnett, 1958;Galef & Clark, 1972; Pereira & Morrell, 2007;Small, 1899), when they are allowed out into their larger environment. At this point, they have full motor and sensory capacity (Moorcroft, Lyttle, & Campbell, 1971). Experiences at this point readily produce longCorrespondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kiersten S. Smith, Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, 197 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102. E-mail: kismith@pegasus.rutgers.edu. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript term effects; enriched environments lead...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Comparison of infant and adult rats in exploratory activity, diurnal patterns, and responses to novel and anxiety-provoking environments.

Smith¹,

Morrell²

2007

Behavioral Neuroscience

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“…Variables, related to animal subjects, that need to be considered when setting up an experiment using the elevated plus maze include: strain [66][67][68][69][70] (which may be particularly true when considering mouse background strain when using transgenic models), breeding line differences 71 , sex/gender 22,72,73 , estrous cycle 22,74,75 and age 14,51,76 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of the elevated plus maze as an assay of anxiety-related behavior in rodents

2007

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The elevated plus maze is a widely used behavioral assay for rodents and it has been validated to assess the anti-anxiety effects of pharmacological agents and steroid hormones, and to define brain regions and mechanisms underlying anxiety-related behavior. Briefly, rats or mice are placed at the junction of the four arms of the maze, facing an open arm, and entries/duration in each arm are recorded by a video-tracking system and observer simultaneously for 5 min. Other ethological parameters (i.e., rears, head dips and stretchedattend postures) can also be observed. An increase in open arm activity (duration and/or entries) reflects anti-anxiety behavior. In our laboratory, rats or mice are exposed to the plus maze on one occasion; thus, results can be obtained in 5 min per rodent. INTRODUCTIONThe elevated plus maze has been described as a simple method for assessing anxiety responses of rodents by File and co-workers 1 . A task, using a Y-shaped apparatus that included an elevated open alley, which produced a strong approach-avoidance conflict, and an enclosed alley, which did not, was first described by Montgomery 2 . This task was modified into an elevated maze with four arms (two open and two enclosed) that are arranged to form a plus shape and was described by Handley and Mithani 3 . These authors described the assessment of anxiety behavior of rodents by using the ratio of time spent on the open arms to the time spent on the closed arms. Unlike other behavioral assays used to assess anxiety responses that rely upon the presentation of noxious stimuli (i.e., electric shock, food/water deprivation, loud noises, exposure to predator odor, etc.) that typically produce a conditioned response, the elevated plus maze relies upon rodents' proclivity toward dark, enclosed spaces (approach) and an unconditioned fear of heights/open spaces (avoidance) 4 .There is great diversity in possible applications of the elevated plus maze. To name a few, prescreening of newly developed pharmacological agents for treatment of anxiety-related disorders can be carried out. The anxiolytic and anxiogenic effects of pharmacological agents, drugs of abuse and hormones can be investigated. The effects of reproductive senescence/aging and/or pre-, peri-or postnatal exposure to various stressors can be assessed. Furthermore, beyond its utility as a model to detect anxiolytic effects of benzodiazepine-related compounds, the elevated plus maze can be used as a behavioral assay to study the brain sites (e.g., limbic regions, hippocampus, amygdala, dorsal raphe nucleus, etc. 5,6 ) and mechanisms (e.g., GABA, glutamate, serotonin, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis neuromodulators, etc. 1,3,[7][8][9][10][11][12] ) underlying anxiety behavior. Indeed, the elevated plus maze has been used as a model of state, unconditioned anxiety for over two decades, and there are now over 2,000 papers related to this topic. Because a lengthy discussion of these key findings is beyond the scope of this protocol, readers are referred to several excellent an...

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“…The whole apparatus was elevated 66 cm above a white floor and exposed to dim illumination (70 lux). The testing procedure was similar to that previously described (Kulikov et al 1997;Ramos et al 1997). Thus, between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., each rat was injected i.p.…”

Section: Elevated Plus-maze Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Lightowler et al 1994) depending on the dose and the anxiety model used. With regard to the rat elevated plusmaze test, principal component analyses have indicated that anxiety is inversely correlated with the percentages of the number of visits to, and time spent on, the open arms, the latter variable being actually the most indicative (File 1991;Cruz et al 1994;Ramos et al 1997). On the other hand, closed arm entries are related to locomotor reactivity, whereas the total (open and closed) number of arms visited is affected both by anxiety and locomotor reactivity levels (File 1991;Cruz et al 1994;Ramos et al 1997).…”

Section: Strain-related Differences In the Behavioural Effects Of Citmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To this end, we chose the SHRs, LEW, and WKY inbred strains since SHRs (which derive from WKY rats) (Okamoto and Aoki 1963) display low anxiety but high activity, whereas LEW rats are anxious and normoactive, and WKY rats are anxious and hypoactive (Gentsch et al 1987;Paré 1989;Ramos et al 1997). Although SHRs have been selected for their readiness to develop hypertension (Okamoto and Aoki 1963), it is crucial to mention here that differences in emotional reactivity between normotensive WKY rats and hypertensive SHRs (Whitehorn et al 1983), and normotensive LEW rats and hypertensive SHRs (Ramos et al 1998), are fully independent from blood pressure differences.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Serotonin Reuptake Inhibition by Citalopram in Rat Strains Differing for Their Emotionality

Pollier

Sarre

Aguerre

et al. 2000

Neuropsychopharmacology

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A multiple-test study of anxiety-related behaviours in six inbred rat strains

Cited by 447 publications

References 52 publications

Comparison of infant and adult rats in exploratory activity, diurnal patterns, and responses to novel and anxiety-provoking environments.

Comparison of infant and adult rats in exploratory activity, diurnal patterns, and responses to novel and anxiety-provoking environments.

The use of the elevated plus maze as an assay of anxiety-related behavior in rodents

Serotonin Reuptake Inhibition by Citalopram in Rat Strains Differing for Their Emotionality

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