Elevated mazes as animal models of anxiety: effects of serotonergic agents

Abstract

This article reviews reported results about the effects of drugs that act upon the serotonergic neurotransmission measured in three elevated mazes that are animal models of anxiety. A bibliographic search has been performed in MED-LINE using different combinations of the key words X-maze, plus-maze, T-maze, serotonin and 5-HT, present in the title and/or the abstract, with no time limit. From the obtained abstracts, several publications were excluded on the basis of the following criteria: review articles that did not report original results, species other than the rat, intracerebral drug administration alone, genetically manipulated rats, and animals having any kind of experimental pathology. The reported results indicate that the effect of drugs on the inhibitory avoidance task performed in the elevated T-maze and on the spatio temporal indexes of anxiety measured in the X and plus mazes correlate with their effect in patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. In contrast, the drug effects on the one-way escape task in the elevated T-maze predict the drug response of panic disorder patients. Overall, the drug effects assessed with the avoidance task in the T-maze are more consistent than those measured through the anxiety indexes of the X and plus mazes. Therefore, the elevated T-maze is a promising animal model of generalized anxiety and panic disorder.

The Integration of Sociality, Monoamines, and Stress Neuroendocrinology in Fish Models: Applications in the Neurosciences

“…These results are in line with clinical data (Mortimore & Anderson, 2000;Graeff et al, 2001;Garcia-leal et al, 2014), as well as preclinical data on mammals (Pinheiro et al, 2007;Guimarães et al, 2010;Paul et al, 2014;Graeff, 2016). The participation of this monoamine in behavioural and neuroendocrine responses to stressors appears to be different, however.…”

Evidências neuroquímicas e comportamentais do efeito ansiogênico da deltametrina em ratos

“…Striatal lesions in serotonin innervation leads to moderate anxiogenic effects in the elevated plus maze 44 . On the contrary, in several elevated mazes as animal models of anxiety, serotoninergic agonists present anxiolytic activity 48 . So, we suggest that the increased anxiety levels here observed in both, elevated plus maze and social interaction behavioral models, were not correlated with the increased activity in serotoninergic system.…”

Structural magnetic ressonance imaging in anxiety disorders: an update of research findings

“…3 Nevertheless, some aspects of the fear conditioning model may indeed be relevant to all forms of pathological anxiety, and much has been learned about the neural circuitry of fear and anxiety from animal models. 4,5 Based on the fear conditioning framework, anxiety disorders are believed to arise out of some abnormality in cortical/subcortical interactions, resulting in an inappropriate expression of the fear response. 6 Clearly, the amygdala plays a critical role in the functional neurocircuitry of anxiety disorders.…”