Effects of rat sex differences and lighting on locomotor exploration of a circular open field with free-standing central corners and without peripheral walls

Alstott, Jeff; Timberlake, William

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2008.09.001

Cited by 43 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Indeed, in our previous studies, when a refuge was provided during the test, both anxious (BALB/c) and less anxious (C57/BL6J and CD-1) strains of mice did not venture onto the arms of the 3D maze (Ennaceur et al, 2008a) or onto the steep slopes attached to an elevated platform ; they spent most of the time inside the refuge. These results are supported by other studies, which suggest that the behavior of rats and mice in a novel environment is directed toward optimizing safety (Alstott et al, 2009;Whishaw et al, 2006;Yaski & Eilam, 2007). Rats and mice, like other predated animals in the wild, are most likely to experience anxiety when they are in the open than when they are hiding in a burrow.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…Numerous interpretations have been provided to account for these behaviors, but none have considered the possibility that the current unconditioned tests of anxiety promote a natural preference for a protected and/or an unlit space over risk taking (Ennaceur, 2014). A number of studies suggest that, in a natural or experimental open field environment, the primary function of the behavior of mice and rats is to optimize security (Alstott et al, 2009;Whishaw et al, 2006;Yaski & Eilam, 2007). Hence, whether impulsivity, curiosity or attempt to find an escape route would have led animals initially to make a few entries into the open and/or lit space, these entries can only decline within and between sessions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Effects of chronic fluoxetine treatment on anxious behaviour of BALB/c mice in a 3-dimensional maze

Abuhamdah

Hussain

Chazot

et al. 2015

Stress

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Here we used a 3-dimensional (3D) maze, a modification of the radial maze, to assess the effects of treatment for two weeks with a single daily dose of fluoxetine (20 mg/kg, i.p.) on anxiety in male BALB/c mice. We examined whether anxiolytic effects of fluoxetine can be detected over three daily test sessions. We examined also whether repeated handling associated with chronic treatment interferes with effects of fluoxetine on anxiety responses. The 3D maze comprises nine arms, each connected to an upward inclined bridge radiating from a central platform. In this maze, BALB/c mice cross frequently into the bridges but avoid the arms. This avoidance is used as an index of anxiety. Two separate groups received once a day either saline (SALCH, n = 8) or fluoxetine (FLUCH, n = 8) for 14 days, and up to 30 min before the test during the subsequent 3 days. A third group received saline (SALAC, n = 8) 30 min before the test, once a day for 3 days. SALAC mice did not cross into the arms, and continued this avoidance over 3 sessions. SALCH mice avoided the arms in session 1 whereas FLUCH mice did cross into the arms, and like SALCH mice, increased number of crossings into and time on the arms in subsequent sessions. Fluoxetine evidently had an anxiolytic effect but only in the first session. These results indicate that handling experience decreased fear and anxiety in the mice, which may have masked the anxiolytic effect of fluoxetine in the second and third test sessions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Effects of chronic fluoxetine treatment on anxious behaviour of BALB/c mice in a 3-dimensional maze

Abuhamdah

Hussain

Chazot

et al. 2015

Stress

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“…The reduction of exploratory behavior in light has been suggested to be a mechanism for predation avoidance from the rodents' highly visual predators (18). By avoiding brightly lit areas, prey avoid detection and therefore increase fitness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light enhances learned fear

Warthen¹,

Wiltgen

Provencio³

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The ability to learn, remember, and respond to emotional events is a powerful survival strategy. However, dysregulated behavioral and physiological responses to these memories are maladaptive. To fully understand learned fear and the pathologies that arise during response malfunction we must reveal the environmental variables that influence learned fear responses. Light, a ubiquitous environmental feature, modulates cognition and anxiety. We hypothesized that light modulates responses to learned fear. Using tone-cued fear conditioning, we found that light enhances behavioral responses to learned fear in C57BL/6J mice. Mice in light freeze more in response to a conditioned cue than mice in darkness. The absence of significant freezing during a 2-wk habituation period and during intertrial intervals indicated that light specifically modulates freezing to the learned acoustic cue rather than the context of the experimental chamber. Repeating our assay in two photoreceptor mutant models, Pde6b rd1/rd1 and Opn4 −/− mice, revealed that lightdependent enhancement of conditioned fear is driven primarily by the rods and/or cones. By repeating our protocol with an altered lighting regimen, we found that lighting conditions acutely modulate responses when altered between conditioning and testing. This is manifested either as an enhancement of freezing when light is added during testing or as a depression of freezing when light is removed during testing. Acute enhancement, but not depression, requires both rod/cone-and melanopsin-dependent photoreception. Our results demonstrate a modulation by light of behavioral responses to learned fear.L ight is a pervasive feature of the environment and exerts broad effects on behavior and physiology via two parallel pathways (1). The familiar image-forming visual pathway allows discernment of objects in the environment according to physical qualities: their color, form, texture, and motion. The parallel non-image forming (NIF) pathway enables light to exert numerous effects on physiology and behavior independently of image formation, such as pupil constriction, modulation of heart rate, and the synchronization of circadian rhythms and sleepwake cycles to the daily light-dark cycle (2). In addition to the effects of light on basic physiological functions, light also modulates higher-order cognitive processes, including anxiety, mood, and alertness/awakeness (3, 4). The retina, the sole photosensory organ in mammals, projects directly to brain regions involved in emotional responses. Among these are the amygdala, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and the periaqueductal gray (5). Activity in some of these regions is known to be acutely modulated by light in a wavelength-dependent manner (3, 6), whereas the link between photoreception and function in other retinorecipient emotional processing areas remains to be elucidated.Brain sites involved in emotional processing participate in the critical function of learning and remembering emotionally arousing events. This function enables ...

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“…It is important to note, however, that the novelty of the testing conditions (i.e., the darkness) may have been stressful for the animals. But this possibility is unlikely when considered with the findings that the rats performances were unaffected by alterations to the environment in other probe tests (blind start and olfactory probe), as well as the observation made by others that rodents demonstrate less stress related behaviors in darkness (Alstott & Timberlake, 2009; Clark, Hamilton, & Whishaw, 2006; Eilam, 2004; Nasello, Machado, Bastos, & Felicio, 1998)…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Directional learning, but no spatial mapping by rats performing a navigational task in an inverted orientation

Valério¹,

Clark²,

Chan³

et al. 2010

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

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Previous studies have identified neurons throughout the rat limbic system that fire as a function of the animal's head direction (HD). This HD signal is particularly robust when rats locomote in the horizontal and vertical planes, but is severely attenuated when locomoting upside-down (Calton & Taube, 2005). Given the hypothesis that the HD signal represents an animal's sense of its directional heading, we evaluated whether rats could accurately navigate in an inverted (upside-down) orientation. The task required the animals to find an escape hole while locomoting inverted on a circular platform suspended from the ceiling. In experiment 1, Long-Evans rats were trained to navigate to the escape hole by locomoting from either one or four start points. Interestingly, no animals from the 4-start point group reached criterion, even after 30 days of training. Animals in the 1-start point group reached criterion after about 6 training sessions. In Experiment 2, probe tests revealed that animals navigating from either 1-or 2-start points utilized distal visual landmarks for accurate orientation. However, subsequent probe tests revealed that their performance was markedly attenuated when required to navigate to the escape hole from a novel starting point. This absence of flexibility while navigating upside-down was confirmed in experiment 3 where we show that the rats do not learn to reach a place, but instead learn separate trajectories to the target hole(s). Based on these results we argue that inverted navigation primarily involves a simple directional strategy based on visual landmarks.

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Effects of rat sex differences and lighting on locomotor exploration of a circular open field with free-standing central corners and without peripheral walls

Cited by 43 publications

References 34 publications

Effects of chronic fluoxetine treatment on anxious behaviour of BALB/c mice in a 3-dimensional maze

Effects of chronic fluoxetine treatment on anxious behaviour of BALB/c mice in a 3-dimensional maze

Light enhances learned fear

Directional learning, but no spatial mapping by rats performing a navigational task in an inverted orientation

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