Fearfulness and sex in F2 Roman rats: males display more fear though both sexes share the same fearfulness traits

Aguilar, Raúl; Gil, Luis; Gray, Jeffrey A.; Driscoll, Peter; Flint, Jonathan; Dawson, Gerard R.; Giménez-Llort, Lydia; Escorihuela, Rosa M.; Fernández-Teruel, Alberto; Tobeña, Adolf

doi:10.1016/s0031-9384(03)00043-x

Cited by 88 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Thirdly, in adult rats, we (Ray & Hansen, 2004) along with others (e.g., Augilar et al, 2003) have found clear sex differences in adult exploratory and/or anxietyrelated behaviors, with females showing more locomotor activity and less anxiety than males. When do these sex differences emerge?…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 49%

Temperamental development in the rat: The first year

Ray

Hansen

2005

Dev. Psychobiol.

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Behavioral continuity and change was studied in 32 (16 male) Wistar rats observed in the hole board and canopy tests, considered to measure exploration and anxiety, respectively. Subjects were tested at 6, 11, 16, 21, 37, and 52 weeks of age. In comparison to 16-week-old rats (the standard age of rats in many experiments), juveniles seemed more anxious and exploratory, whereas mature rats were more anxious and less exploratory. There was substantial behavioral consistency between week 6 and 52, the correlations being especially high between weeks 11 and 52. Principal components analyses revealed one temperamental dimension reflecting harm avoidance in juvenile and mature rats, whereas adult rats were characterized by a further dimension, reflecting novelty seeking.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 49%

Temperamental development in the rat: The first year

Ray

Hansen

2005

Dev. Psychobiol.

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“…Similarly, in studies of fear conditioning, males show more prolonged freezing, whether shock is signaled by context (Maren et al 1994;Gupta et al 2001;Wiltgen et al 2001) or by a discrete CS (Pryce et al 1999). Indeed, by nearly every behavioral measure, males show comparatively increased conditioned fear (Aguilar et al 2003). These effects can also be seen in humans, as human males acquire fear conditioning significantly faster than do females (Milad et al 2006).…”

Section: Acute Stressmentioning

confidence: 91%

Sex influences on the neurobiology of learning and memory

Andreano¹,

Cahill²

2009

Learn. Mem.

615

400

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In essentially every domain of neuroscience, the generally implicit assumption that few, if any, meaningful differences exist between male and female brain function is being challenged. Here we address how this development is influencing studies of the neurobiology of learning and memory. While it has been commonly held that males show an advantage on spatial tasks, and females on verbal tasks, there is increasing evidence that sex differences are more widespread than previously supposed. Differing performance between the sexes have been observed on a number of common learning tasks in both the human and animal literature, many neither purely spatial nor verbal. We review sex differences reported in various areas to date, while attempting to identify common features of sexually dimorphic tasks, and to place these differences in a neurobiological context. This discussion focuses on studies of four classes of memory tasks for which sex differences have been frequently reported: spatial, verbal, autobiographical, and emotional memory. We conclude that the female verbal advantage extends into numerous tasks, including tests of spatial and autobiographical abilities, but that a small but significant advantage may exist for general episodic memory. We further suggest that for some tasks, stress evokes sex differences, which are not normally observed, and that these differences are mediated largely by interactions between stress and sex hormones.Sex influences on brain function are ubiquitous. Differences between the sexes have been documented at every level of neuroscience, from single neurons in cell culture to systems level processes as measured by neuroimaging. In some cases, consideration of sex may significantly alter, even reverse, conclusions about brain function drawn from the study of one sex alone (Cahill 2006). In some fields, such as the study of drug addiction, the evidence for sex differences is so strong that consideration of sex as a factor is becoming the norm, rather than the exception (Wetherington 2007).The claim that these neurobiological sex differences extend to the behavioral level has typically been more controversial. A recent review of the literature on this topic warns against the ''costs of overinflated claims of gender differences.'' The review holds that overall ''males and females are alike on most-but not all-psychological variables'' (Hyde 2005), but notes exceptions where sex does have an effect, including sexual and aggressive behaviors. Still, given how broadly sex differences are distributed on the neural level, it seems unlikely that their behavioral effects would be restricted solely to these domains.One area of behavior not considered in Hyde's review is the influence of sex on learning and memory. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that an understanding of the neurobiological and cognitive consequences of sex is relevant across this field. In the review that follows, behavioral evidence indicating differences between men and women from numerous memory tasks will be co...

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“…They were bred at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain) from colonies established in 1997 (Driscoll et al, 1998;Escorihuela et al, 1997Escorihuela et al, , 1999. Although the literature refers to gender differences in the expression of impulsive behavior, we used female rats in the present experiments because the behavioral traits that distinguish the Roman lines have been consistently confirmed in both sexes across several laboratories and along different generations (Aguilar et al, 2003;Corda et al, 2005;Ferre et al, 1995;Rosas et al, 2007).…”

Section: Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impulsivity Characterization in the Roman High- and Low-Avoidance Rat Strains: Behavioral and Neurochemical Differences

Moreno

Cardona

Gómez

et al. 2010

Neuropsychopharmacol

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134

106

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The selective breeding of Roman high-(RHA) and low-avoidance (RLA) rats for rapid vs extremely poor acquisition of active avoidance behavior in a shuttle-box has generated two phenotypes with different emotional and motivational profiles. The phenotypic traits of the Roman rat lines/strains (outbred or inbred, respectively) include differences in sensation/novelty seeking, anxiety/fearfulness, stress responsivity, and susceptibility to addictive substances. We designed this study to characterize differences between the inbred RHA-I and RLA-I strains in the impulsivity trait by evaluating different aspects of the multifaceted nature of impulsive behaviors using two different models of impulsivity, the delay-discounting task and five-choice serial reaction time (5-CSRT) task. Previously, rats were evaluated on a schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP) task that has been suggested as a model of obsessive-compulsive disorder. RHA-I rats showed an increased acquisition of the SIP task, higher choice impulsivity in the delay-discounting task, and poor inhibitory control as shown by increased premature responses in the 5-CSRT task. Therefore, RHA-I rats manifested an increased impulsivity phenotype compared with RLA-I rats. Moreover, these differences in impulsivity were associated with basal neurochemical differences in striatum and nucleus accumbens monoamines found between the two strains. These findings characterize the Roman rat strains as a valid model for studying the different aspects of impulsive behavior and for analyzing the mechanisms involved in individual predisposition to impulsivity and its related psychopathologies.

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Fearfulness and sex in F2 Roman rats: males display more fear though both sexes share the same fearfulness traits

Cited by 88 publications

References 40 publications

Temperamental development in the rat: The first year

Temperamental development in the rat: The first year

Sex influences on the neurobiology of learning and memory

Impulsivity Characterization in the Roman High- and Low-Avoidance Rat Strains: Behavioral and Neurochemical Differences

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