Anxiety and the problem of “inattentive” animals in water maze tests

Abstract

Some reports have described the low reactivity of rats to a water-escape platform during their initial exposition to the Morris water maze or Cincinnati water maze, which impedes task acquisition. To assess the attention of rats to tactile stimuli, we measured the paw tactile reactivity in rats exposed to the original water "Extrapolation Escape Task" (EET). In this test, a rat tries to dive to escape from a plastic cylinder immersed into a water tank. Only rats with high trait anxiety demonstrated tactile neglect after their initial exposition to that water locomotion task. Previous EET training, but not novelty, motivation, the physical factors of water immersion, exercise or stress influence that effect. We propose that there is a distractor effect of the difficult diving task on ordinary tactile oriented behavior in anxious rats.

Effect of the Succinic Salt of Diethylethanolamine Fumar Ester on Cognitive Functions of Laboratory Animals

“…Тест ЭПИ («НПК Открытая Наука», Россия) используется для выявления влияния фармакологических агентов на мнестические функции крыс [4]. Животное помещали в установку, включали секундомер и фиксировали латентный период начала реакций и латентный период подныривания.…”