Lasting effects on rodent anxiety of a single exposure to a cat

Adamec, Robert E.; Shallow, Tanya

doi:10.1016/0031-9384(93)90050-p

Cited by 325 publications

(210 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Single or multiple experiences of exposure to a predator, predator odor or social defeat augmented anxiogenic responses in rodents when tested 1 to 21 days following the exposure episode [1,2,4,5,7,8,11,45]. The sustained effects of predator stress have been reported in several unconditioned response tasks, including the elevated plusmaze and light-dark box [1][2][3]5,8]. Similarly, a single session of foot shocks increased immobility and freezing behaviors in a novel environment when assessed 1-4 weeks after the stress exposure [54][55][56].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Rats exposed to 7 days of unpredictable stress and tested 7 days later in the elevated plus-maze or a novel environment showed increased anxiety-like behaviors [13]. Single or multiple experiences of exposure to a predator, predator odor or social defeat augmented anxiogenic responses in rodents when tested 1 to 21 days following the exposure episode [1,2,4,5,7,8,11,45]. The sustained effects of predator stress have been reported in several unconditioned response tasks, including the elevated plusmaze and light-dark box [1][2][3]5,8].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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The delayed effects of chronic unpredictable stress on anxiety measures

Matuszewich

Karney

Carter

et al. 2007

Physiology & Behavior

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Previous research has found that exposure to unpredictable stress can augment anxiety in humans and animals. The appearance of anxiety symptoms in humans frequently develop after stress exposure has terminated, but few rodent studies have systematically examined the delayed anxiogenic effects of unpredictable stress. Therefore, the current study investigated whether anxiety-like behaviors in rats would increase at several time intervals following exposure to chronic unpredictable stress (CUS). Unconditioned and conditioned response tasks were used to assess anxiety in male rats 1, 7 or 14 days following exposure to 10 days of a variety of stressors. Rats exposed to CUS showed increased burying behaviors and immobility during the defensive burying test, a conditioned anxiety test. The effects on burying behavior were apparent 7 and 14 days after the termination of the unpredictable stress procedure, but not when tested 1 day after CUS. Total time immobile in the defensive burying test also increased 14 days after termination of the last stressor. In contrast, there were no significant effects of CUS on behavioral measures in the unconditioned response tasks, the elevated plus-maze or light-dark box, at any time point following exposure to CUS. The current findings suggest that CUS may be a useful model of human conditioned anxiety that develops subsequent to chronic stress exposure.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The delayed effects of chronic unpredictable stress on anxiety measures

Matuszewich

Karney

Carter

et al. 2007

Physiology & Behavior

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“…Live predators are powerful stimuli that even with short exposures can lead to reliable and relatively long-lasting changes (often seen as facilitation or sensitization) in behavioral and neuroendocrine responses in a variety of situations (Adamec et al, 1998(Adamec et al, , 2007(Adamec et al, , 1999Adamec and Shallow, 1993;Blanchard et al, 1998b;Blundell et al, 2005;Figueiredo et al, 2003). Whether such sensitizing actions take place with predator odors alone has not been investigated extensively, although some reports with cat odor (Adamec et al, 2006) and our work with ferret odor (Masini et al, 2006a) suggest that this might be the case.…”

Section: Subacute and Chronic Effects Of Ferret Odor On Neuroendocrinmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Prior work with predators and their odors in rodents indicates that repeated (sometimes single) exposures to these stimuli produce a number of effects ranging from habituation and sensitization, to conditioned fear (Adamec et al, 1998Adamec and Shallow, 1993;Blanchard et al, 2003aBlanchard et al, ,c, 1990aBlanchard et al, ,c, 1998bBlanchard et al, , 2001Endres and Fendt, 2007;Figueiredo et al, 2003;File et al, 1993;McGregor et al, 2002;Takahashi et al, 2005;Wallace and Rosen, 2000;File, 1994, 1992), that have been shown to be sustained and long-lasting in some instances. While repeated exposure to live cat is reported to produce little behavioral habituation in rats (Blanchard et al, 1998b;Figueiredo et al, 2003), their odors, which are thought to provide only a "partial predator stimulus" (Dielenberg and McGregor, 2001), produce variable development of clear behavioral (Blanchard et al, 1990;File et al, 1993;Takahashi et al, 2005;File, 1994, 1992) or neuroendocrine habituation (File et al, 1993).…”

Section: Subacute and Chronic Effects Of Ferret Odor On Neuroendocrinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute and chronic effects of ferret odor exposure in Sprague–Dawley rats

Campeau

Nyhuis

Sasse

et al. 2008

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

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This manuscript describes several behavioral and functional studies evaluating the capacity of ferret odors to elicit a number of acute and long-term responses in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Acute presentation elicits multiple responses, suggesting that ferret odor, likely from skin gland secretions, provides an anxiogenic-like stimulus in this strain of rats. Compared to cat odor, however, ferret odor did not produce rapid fear conditioning, a result perhaps attributable to methodological factors. Inactivation of the olfactory system and medial nucleus of the amygdala, combined with induction of the immediate-early gene c-fos, suggest the necessity of the accessory olfactory system in mediating the effects of ferret odor. Repeated exposures to ferret odor produce variable habituation of neuroendocrine and behavioral responses, perhaps indicative of the lack of control over the exact individual origin or concentration of ferret odor. Ferret odor induces rapid and long-term body weight regulation, thymic involution, adrenal hyperplasia and facilitation of the neuroendocrine response to additional challenges. It is argued that the use of such odors is exquisitely suited to investigate the brain regions coordinating anxiety-like responses and the long-term changes elicited by such stimuli.

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“…Handling of animals before testing: Prior experience with handling, stress or injections can alter behavioral responses of rodents in the elevated plus maze 9,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60] . It is important to ensure that in experiments using the elevated plus maze, handling of rodents and any experience with prior stressors, particularly immediately before testing, is consistent across animals and treatment groups.…”

Section: Predictive Validity Of the Elevated Plus Mazementioning

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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Lasting effects on rodent anxiety of a single exposure to a cat

Cited by 325 publications

References 23 publications

The delayed effects of chronic unpredictable stress on anxiety measures

The delayed effects of chronic unpredictable stress on anxiety measures

Acute and chronic effects of ferret odor exposure in Sprague–Dawley rats

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

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