Emotional changes related to age in rats—a behavioral analysis

Boguszewski, Paweł M.; Zagrodzka, Jolanta

doi:10.1016/s0166-4328(02)00018-9

Cited by 130 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In the plus-maze, our data suggest a decrease in anxiety-related behavior over aging, in agreement with previous studies (Pisarska et al 2000;Torras-Garcia et al 2005, but Boguszewski andZagrodzka 2002;Bessa et al 2005). As this decrease was not observed in middle-aged rats, it is probably not a phenomenon protracting over lifespan.…”

Section: Emotional Behaviorssupporting

confidence: 93%

Lifelong environmental enrichment in rats: impact on emotional behavior, spatial memory vividness, and cholinergic neurons over the lifespan

Harati

Barbelivien

Herbeaux

et al. 2012

AGE

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We assessed lifelong environmental enrichment effects on possible age-related modifications in emotional behaviors, spatial memory acquisition, retrieval of recent and remote spatial memory, and cholinergic forebrain systems. At the age of 1 month, Long-Evans female rats were placed in standard or enriched rearing conditions and tested after 3 (young), 12 (middle-aged), or 24 (aged)months. Environmental enrichment decreased the reactivity to stressful situations regardless of age. In the water maze test, it delayed the onset of learning deficits and prevented age-dependent spatial learning and recent memory retrieval alterations. Remote memory retrieval, which was altered independently of age under standard rearing conditions, was rescued by enrichment in young and middle-aged, but unfortunately not aged rats. A protected basal forebrain cholinergic system, which could well be one out of several neuronal manifestations of lifelong environmental enrichment, might have contributed to the behavioral benefits of this enrichment.

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Section: Emotional Behaviorssupporting

confidence: 93%

Lifelong environmental enrichment in rats: impact on emotional behavior, spatial memory vividness, and cholinergic neurons over the lifespan

Harati

Barbelivien

Herbeaux

et al. 2012

AGE

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“…Interestingly, LPS treatment dose-dependently (i.e., in higher doses) intensified this age-related impairment of sensorimotor ability (Table 1). Generally, anxiety behaviors will change with age in rodents and humans (Boguszewski and Zagrodzka 2002;Chen et al 2007a;Lamberty and Gower 1993). In the current study, a significant age effect was observed in the open field and elevated plus maze (Table 1) tests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inflammatory insult during pregnancy accelerates age-related behavioral and neurobiochemical changes in CD-1 mice

Wang

Chen

et al. 2016

AGE

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Data shows that inflammation during pregnancy significantly exerts a long-term influence on offspring, such as increasing the risk of adult cognition decline in animals. However, it is unclear whether gestational inflammation affects the neurobehavioral and neurobiochemical outcomes in the motherself during aging. In this study, pregnant CD-1 mice intraperitoneally received lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in two doses (25 and 50 g/kg, respectively) or normal saline daily during gestational days 15-17. At the age of 15 months, a battery of behavioral tasks was employed to evaluate their species-typical behaviors, sensorimotor ability, anxiety levels, and spatial learning and memory abilities. An immunohistochemical method was utilized preliminarily to detect neurobiochemical indicators consisting of amyloid-β, p h o s p h o r y l a t e d t a u , p r e s y n a p t i c p r o t e i n s synaptotagmin-1 and syntaxin-1, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and histone-4 acetylation on the K8 site (H4K8ac). The behavioral results showed that LPS exposure during pregnancy exacerbated a decline in 15-month-old CD-1 mice's abilities to nest, their sensorimotor and spatial learning and memory capabilities, and increased their anxiety levels. The neurobiochemical results indicated that gestational LPS exposure also intensified age-related hippocampal changes, including increased amyloid-β 42 , phosphorylated tau, synaptotagmin-1 and GFAP, and decreased syntaxin-1 and H4K8ac. Our results suggested that the inflammatory insult during pregnancy could be an important risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease, and the H4K8 acetylation might play an important role in the underlying mechanism. This study offers a perspective for improving strategies that support healthy development and successful aging.

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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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Emotional changes related to age in rats—a behavioral analysis

Cited by 130 publications

References 36 publications

Lifelong environmental enrichment in rats: impact on emotional behavior, spatial memory vividness, and cholinergic neurons over the lifespan

Lifelong environmental enrichment in rats: impact on emotional behavior, spatial memory vividness, and cholinergic neurons over the lifespan

Inflammatory insult during pregnancy accelerates age-related behavioral and neurobiochemical changes in CD-1 mice

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

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