Animal models of anxiety: an ethological perspective

Abstract

In the field of anxiety research, animal models are used as screening tools in the search for compounds with therapeutic potential and as simulations for research on mechanisms underlying emotional behaviour. However, a solely pharmacological approach to the validation of such tests has resulted in distinct problems with their applicability to systems other than those involving the benzodiazepine/GABA A receptor complex. In this context, recent developments in our understanding of mammalian defensive behaviour have not only prompted the development of new models but also attempts to refine existing ones. The present review focuses on the application of ethological techniques to one of the most widely used animal models of anxiety, the elevated plus-maze paradigm. This fresh approach to an established test has revealed a hitherto unrecognized multidimensionality to plus-maze behaviour and, as it yields comprehensive behavioural profiles, has many advantages over conventional methodology. This assertion is supported by reference to recent work on the effects of diverse manipulations including psychosocial stress, benzodiazepines, GABA receptor ligands, neurosteroids, 5-HT 1A receptor ligands, and panicolytic/panicogenic agents. On the basis of this review, it is suggested that other models of anxiety may well benefit from greater attention to behavioural detail.

Measuring normal and pathological anxiety-like behaviour in mice: a review

“…risk assessment, head-dipping) together with conventional spatiotemporal measures of open-arm avoidance. Studies using this modified version of the plus-maze showed that risk assessment measures are generally more sensitive to drug effects than are avoidance measures [73]. For example, comparison between BZ and 5-HT 1A anxiolytics revealed differences in anxiolyticlike profiles that may not be detected by conventional scoring.…”

“…Over the past three decades, a bewildering diversity of tests has been developed which claim face, construct and/or predictive validity as animal models of anxiety disorders (for review, see [73,89]). While most of these procedures use rats as subjects, a few of them have been validated with mice.…”

“…There are several excellent review articles that have described and discussed extensively these models (see, for example, [54,73,79,84]). Table 1 gives an overview of the existing mouse models of 'state' anxiety.…”

“…Among these, the elevated plus-maze has become one of the most popular behavioral test for research on anxiety [55,74]. As pointed out by Rodgers [73], this popularity is mainly due to practical rather than theoretical reasons, because the elevated plus-maze permits a quick screening of anxiety-modulating drugs or mouse genotypes without training or involvement of complex schedules. Briefly, in this situation, mice generally taken straight from their home cages, will show a pattern of behavior characterized by open-arm avoidance.…”

Alterações comportamentais em Rattus norvegicus experimentalmente infectados por Toxocara cati ou T. canis

“…Por outro lado, sabe-se que ratos têm predileção por explorar espaços fechados em comparação aos abertos e quando numa situação de escolha como, por exemplo, num labirinto em Y, preferem consistentemente os braços fechados (Ramos et al, 1997;Rodgers e Johnson, 1995, Rodgers et al, 1997. utilizou-se arena circular, circundada com parede de madeira (Chieffi et al, 2010); o piso do aparato era dividido em 46 partes, por meio de círculos e segmentos radiais.…”