Diazepam-induced decrease in anxiety-like behaviors of marmoset monkeys exposed to a novel open-field

Abstract

Unfamiliar environments can be a source of stress, fear and anxiety for marmoset monkeys. In spite of existing data, the influence of putative anxiolytics on the effects of novel environments has yet to be tested in primates. Therefore, the behavior of adult black tufted-ear marmosets to a single brief (15 min) exposure to a novel environment was analyzed in the presence and absence of diazepam (DZP). Marmosets were pre-treated with vehicle (n=5) or diazepam (0.5 mg/kg, ip; n=5) and submitted to a 15 min free exploration trial within a rectangular open-field arena. DZP-treated subjects, compared to vehicle controls, demonstrated significantly lower rates of (phee) contact calls and exploration, while a higher scan duration. Sojourn time in the arena's central zone was also significantly higher in the former group and sedation was not observed. Thus, pre-treatment with the benzodiazepine DZP decreased several anxiety-related behaviors induced by subjecting the marmosets to a new environment. The results also indicate that, as with rodent subjects, the open-field may provide a useful simple paradigm for assessing anxiety-like behaviors in this primate and, as such, constitutes a unique opportunity for direct comparative studies between rodents and marmoset monkeys in terms of anxiety and/or sedation.

Assessing Anxiety in Nonhuman Primates

“…Some bolder, more exploratory children play with the toys and show little distress, whereas more inhibited children often stay close to their mothers. Although commonly used to assess anxiety in rodent species (Prut and Belzung 2003), these sorts of open field tests are less often used in NHP species (but see Cagni et al 2012;Williamson et al 2003). We focus on two provoked response tests herein.…”

A Susceptible Period of Photic Day-Night Rhythm Loss in Common Marmoset Social Behavior Development

“…The primates experienced LL might visualize in Figures 2, 3 consistently exhibited comparative depressiveor anxiety-like expression, not like the rodents grooming but in localizing preference of lower areas (Senoo et al, 2011), possibly translated motor suppressed function without the species specific climbing exploration under the gravity-dependent potential energy though it is merely our hypothesis. Comparing to LD group, the three groups experienced LL during development significantly expressed less Pcall which was reported an anxietylike and social contact behavior (Cagni et al, 2012; Figure 3). Consequently, the impact of constant light during development might express certain socio-emotional aberrance.…”

Leptocarpus disjunctus prolongs sleeping time and increases nonrapid eye movement sleep with additional anxiolytic capacity

“…Open-field testing can be used for testing antianxiety agents which also showed reduced exploratory behavior. [13] In rotarod performance test, animals treated with ethanolic extract showed decreased locomotor activity, referred to motor coordination effect. [14] This evidence supported that ethanolic extract affected motor coordination.…”