Burying as a defensive response in rats.

Abstract

In typical laboratory settings, the defensive reactions of animals appear to be limited tofreezing, fleeing, and attacking. However, in the present investigations, rats.tested in the presence of movable ma-> terial incorporated it into a striking and adaptive behavioural sequence. Rats shocked once through a stationary prod buried this shock ^source, even when the shocks-test interval was 20 days. This burying behaviour occurred at a variety of shock intensities and seemed to be controlled sp cifically by the relation between the shock and the prod; rats shocked through a grid did not bury the prod, and rats shocked by one of two identical prods buried only the shock-prod. Both the position and bright ness of the prod seemed to control the burying behaviour. When either of these cues was changed prior to the test, burying behaviour was disrupted compared to control conditions in which these cues were unaltered. Although burying was a directed and consistent response of rats to prod shock, it was not a simple, reflexive behaviour; rats could adapt their burying behaviour to changes in both the kind and disposition of burying materials. Thus, the usual assumption that the rat's defensive reper^toire is limited to a few simple behaviours appears to have been shaped by the constraints of standard testing environments rather than by the actual propensities of the rat. These results were discussed in terms of their implications for a "biological" approach to aversive learning.

Autonomic Changes Associated with Enhanced Anxiety in 5-HT1A Receptor Knockout Mice

“…In addition to the autonomic changes, behavioral observations show that locomotion and rearing are decreased in KO mice, whereas behaviors reflecting increased conflict, i.e., burying behavior (Pinel and Treit 1978) and stretched approach postures (Rodgers and Johnson 1995) were increased in KO mice. Together with the observed tachycardia and hyperthermia, the increased burying and stretched approach postures are indicative for an enhanced fear/anxiety response in KO mice.…”

Fluoxetine Disrupts the Integration of Anxiety and Aversive Memories

“…In this test, rats shocked from a stationary, electrified probe push bedding material from the floor of the experimental chamber toward the shock-probe (ie they bury the probe), avoid further contacts with the probe, and exhibit freezing behavior (Treit et al, 1994(Treit et al, , 1981Frye and Seliga, 2003;Pinel and Treit, 1978). In rats it has been demonstrated that anxiolytic drugs such as diazepam decrease burying towards the shock-probe (de Boer et al, 1990;Treit et al, 1993;Tsuda et al, 1988), whereas anxiogenic drugs such as yohimbine increase shock-probe burying (Tsuda et al, 1988).…”

Rats with Extended Access to Cocaine Exhibit Increased Stress Reactivity and Sensitivity to the Anxiolytic-Like Effects of the mGluR 2/3 Agonist LY379268 during Abstinence

“…Stress reactivity was measured using the shock-probe defensive burying test (Pinel and Treit, 1978) in which the primary index of stress or anxiety is the duration spent by rats burying an electrified probe, with increased burying time providing a measure of elevated stress reactivity or anxiety. Clinically effective anxiolytic agents such as diazepam, chlordiazepoxide, and buspirone attenuate levels of defensive burying (De Boer and Koolhaas, 2003), suggesting that this test is a useful tool for evaluating the anxiolytic potential of novel agents.…”