Genetic differences in the elevated plus-maze persist after first exposure of inbred rats to the test apparatus

Izídio, Geison S.; Spricigo, L.; Ramos, André

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2004.12.002

Cited by 16 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The subjects in each group were balanced as closely as possible across the four litters. Each subject was only tested once in each novel environment, as repeated testing in the OF and EPM has been shown to affect performance (e.g., Bertoglio & Carobrez, 2000; Izídio, Spricigo, & Ramos, 2005). Given that body weight is predicted to differ across age and sex groups, all subjects were weighed at weekly intervals, so that we could include body weight as a covariate in the analyses of behavioral data.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ontogeny of exploratory behavior in male and female adolescent rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Lynn

Brown

2009

Developmental Psychobiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During adolescence, rats gain independence from their mothers and disperse from the natal burrow, with males typically dispersing further than females. We predicted that, if dispersal patterns are associated with responsiveness to novelty, exploratory behavior in novel environments would increase across adolescence, and males would explore more than females. Alternatively, females might explore more than males, if females are more motivated than males to learn about the immediate environment or if females have poorer spatial abilities than males. Twenty-five male and 21 female rats were exposed to two novel environments (open field and elevated plus-maze) during early, mid-, or late adolescence. Total locomotion and amount of exploration directed towards aversive areas increased across adolescence, even when body weight was included as a covariate. Female adolescents locomoted more and spent more time exploring aversive areas than males. Developmental changes in neural function potentially underlie age and sex differences in exploratory behavior. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 51: 513–520, 2009.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ontogeny of exploratory behavior in male and female adolescent rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Lynn

Brown

2009

Developmental Psychobiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…; Izídio et al. ; Rodgers and Cole ). Numerous interpretations have been provided to account for these behaviors, but none has considered the possibility that the current TUA promotes a natural preference for a protected and/or an unlit space over risk taking (see Ennaceur ).…”

Section: Natural Preference Versus Security and Safety Versus Conflicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preclinical animal anxiety research – flaws and prejudices

Ennaceur

Chazot

2016

Pharmacology Res & Perspec

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The current tests of anxiety in mice and rats used in preclinical research include the elevated plus‐maze (EPM) or zero‐maze (EZM), the light/dark box (LDB), and the open‐field (OF). They are currently very popular, and despite their poor achievements, they continue to exert considerable constraints on the development of novel approaches. Hence, a novel anxiety test needs to be compared with these traditional tests, and assessed against various factors that were identified as a source of their inconsistent and contradictory results. These constraints are very costly, and they are in most cases useless as they originate from flawed methodologies. In the present report, we argue that the EPM or EZM, LDB, and OF do not provide unequivocal measures of anxiety; that there is no evidence of motivation conflict involved in these tests. They can be considered at best, tests of natural preference for unlit and/or enclosed spaces. We also argued that pharmacological validation of a behavioral test is an inappropriate approach; it stems from the confusion of animal models of human behavior with animal models of pathophysiology. A behavioral test is developed to detect not to produce symptoms, and a drug is used to validate an identified physiological target. In order to overcome the major methodological flaws in animal anxiety studies, we proposed an open space anxiety test, a 3D maze, which is described here with highlights of its various advantages over to the traditional tests.

show abstract

“…The most popular anxiety-related paradigm in rodents is the EPM (or alternatively elevated-zero maze) (File et al, 1990;Rodgers et al, 2002a;Izidio et al, 2005). A simple plus-shaped maze contains two arms opposite each other, which have vertical walls allowing the animal to feel safe in the enclosed space.…”

Section: Different Types Of Anxiety Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pitfalls in the interpretation of genetic and pharmacological effects on anxiety-like behaviour in rodents

Bouwknecht

Paylor²

2008

Behavioural Pharmacology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the last 15 years, genetically modified mice have added important data to our knowledge on psychiatric diseases including anxiety. This has produced many behavioural publications, partially by non-behaviourists, in which differences between mutants and normal wild-type animals were described. The popularity of these novel tools allowing the study of new mechanisms also, however, led to observations that could not be confirmed. This review attempts to summarize various factors that can lead to difficult and partially incorrect interpretation of data collected in anxiety-related paradigms. These pitfalls are explained by using virtual data. Our analysis illustrates that determining anxiety in rodents is more complicated than measuring a single parameter in a particular paradigm. It is important to use proper controls such as additional measures in the same or other procedures, as well as a conservative estimation of the chance of finding an actual effect. In this way, it is possible to enhance confidence in the findings. Alternative explanations for findings, like side effects or main effects in a different domain, such as cognition, should always be taken into account. Finally, several examples from the literature are presented as illustrations of the theoretical issues discussed. We believe that considering the pitfalls presented here will help researchers to design optimized experiments that can be more readily interpreted and replicated across laboratories.

show abstract

Genetic differences in the elevated plus-maze persist after first exposure of inbred rats to the test apparatus

Cited by 16 publications

References 27 publications

The ontogeny of exploratory behavior in male and female adolescent rats (Rattus norvegicus)

The ontogeny of exploratory behavior in male and female adolescent rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Preclinical animal anxiety research – flaws and prejudices

Pitfalls in the interpretation of genetic and pharmacological effects on anxiety-like behaviour in rodents

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About