Stress, behavioral arousal, and open field activity—A reexamination of emotionality in the rat

Roth, Kevin A.; Katz, Richard J.

doi:10.1016/0149-7634(79)90012-5

Cited by 173 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Locomotor activity in open field is thought to be the result of a competition between general arousal and exploratory activities; thus, increased non goal-directed locomotor velocity may suppress exploration (Roth and Katz, 1979;Stefanski et al, 1992). However, decreased exploration with normal locomotor activity in adult VPA rats suggests that the effect may be mediated rather by fear-related inhibition of exploratory activity or decreased motivation to explore a novel environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Behavioral Alterations in Rats Prenatally Exposed to Valproic Acid: Animal Model of Autism

Schneider

Przewłocki

2004

Neuropsychopharmacol

797

650

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Autism is a severe behavioral disorder characterized by pervasive impairments in social interactions, deficits in verbal and nonverbal communication, and stereotyped, repetitive patterns of behaviors and interests. Recently, a new rodent model of autism was created by exposure of rat fetuses to valproic acid (VPA) on the 12.5th day of gestation (VPA rats). The model has striking anatomical, pathological, and etiological similarities to human data; however, it has not been characterized behaviorally. In order to determine if VPA rats present behavioral aberrations observed in autism, their behavior was extensively evaluated in a battery of tests. The results of the present experiments demonstrate that VPA rats exhibit: (1) lower sensitivity to pain and higher sensitivity to nonpainful stimuli, (2) diminished acoustic prepulse inhibition, (3) locomotor and repetitive/stereotypic-like hyperactivity combined with lower exploratory activity, and (4) decreased number of social behaviors and increased latency to social behaviors. In addition, VPA rats showed delayed maturation, lower body weight, delayed motor development, and attenuated integration of a coordinated series of reflexes, delayed nest-seeking response mediated by olfactory system, and normal negative geotaxis. Interestingly, all behavioral aberrations described in this paper appear before puberty, which could distinguish the VPA rat model of autism from other animal models of neurodevelopmental disorders, especially rodent models of schizophrenia. Our results bring further support to validity of the proposed VPA animal model of autism, suggesting similarities between the observed pattern of behavioral alterations in VPA rats and features of disturbed behavior in autistic patients.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Behavioral Alterations in Rats Prenatally Exposed to Valproic Acid: Animal Model of Autism

Schneider

Przewłocki

2004

Neuropsychopharmacol

797

650

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“…Exploration in an unfamiliar environment is a classic stressor for rodents (42). We modified the technique to avoid arousal confounds by gently placing each animal in the home corner, important protection for this thigmotactic species, seated in a heavy ceramic bowl serving as a home base from which to remain vigilant or explore.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social isolation dysregulates endocrine and behavioral stress while increasing malignant burden of spontaneous mammary tumors

Hermes¹,

Delgado²,

Tretiakova³

et al. 2009

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

179

140

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In a life span study, we examined how the social environment regulates naturally occurring tumor development and malignancy in genetically prone Sprague-Dawley rats. We randomly assigned this gregarious species to live either alone or in groups of five female rats. Mammary tumor burden among social isolates increased to 84 times that of age-matched controls, as did malignancy, specifically a 3.3 relative risk for ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive ductal carcinoma, the most common early breast cancers in women. Importantly, isolation did not extend ovarian function in late middle age; in fact, isolated animals were exposed to lower levels of estrogen and progesterone in the middle-age period of mammary tumor growth, with unchanged tumor estrogen and progesterone receptor status. Isolates, however, did develop significant dysregulation of corticosterone responses to everyday stressors manifest in young adulthood, months before tumor development, and persisting into old age. Among isolates, corticosterone response to an acute stressor was enhanced and recovery was markedly delayed, each associated with increased mammary tumor progression. In addition to being stressed and tumor prone, an array of behavioral measures demonstrated that socially isolated females possessed an anxious, fearful, and vigilant phenotype. Our model provides a framework for studying the interaction of social neglect with genetic risk to identify mechanisms whereby psychosocial stressors increase growth and malignancy of breast cancer.breast cancer ͉ glucocorticoids ͉ physiological stress ͉ psychological stress ͉ social behavior

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“…Conditioning scores thus represent the entire cocaine-conditioning session and the first quarter of the pupconditioning session. During the remainder of the pup-conditioning session, dams were typically nursing or crouching over their pups; scores did not change after the first 30 min (see Feigley et al 1972;Roth and Katz 1979).…”

Section: Analyses and Statisticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing the incentive salience of cocaine challenges preference for pup- over cocaine-associated stimuli during early postpartum: place preference and locomotor analyses in the lactating female rat

Seip

Morrell

2007

Psychopharmacology

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Rationale/Objectives-Prior studies using a dual-choice conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure revealed that postpartum female rats (dams) strongly prefer chambers associated with pups over those associated with subcutaneously administered cocaine almost exclusively during early but not late postpartum (Mattson et al. 2001). The present study examines whether early postpartum dams retain strong pup-associated chamber preference when contrasted with a cocaine stimulus of greater incentive salience (intraperitoneal [IP] injections with brief conditioning sessions). Locomotor rate was measured during conditioning (stimuli-present) and test (stimulus-absent) sessions.Materials and methods-A three-chambered CPP apparatus was used to compare preferences for chambers associated with IP cocaine vs age-matched pups. Unconditioned stimuli were systematically assigned to the least-preferred chamber of separate groups of dams before conditioning. Control dams verified that unconditioned stimuli were necessary for CPP and stimulusassociated locomotion.Results-Compared with most late postpartum dams (60%), only 31% of early postpartum dams preferred the cocaine-associated chamber (P<0.05). Substantially more dams preferred the pupassociated chamber during early postpartum (27%) than late postpartum (5%; P<0.05). Locomotor sensitization emerged across cocaine-conditioning sessions in cocaine-preferring but not puppreferring dams (P<0.05). Locomotor rates were consistently lower in preferred vs nonpreferred chambers during test.Conclusions-After increasing cocaine's incentive salience, more early postpartum dams prefer the cocaine-associated chamber than previously reported (Mattson et al. 2001). However, pupassociated chamber preference was still higher in early vs late postpartum. Pup-and cocainepreferring dams expressed differences in the induction phase of locomotor sensitization across cocaine conditioning but expressed similar motoric patterns in their preferred chambers at test.

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Stress, behavioral arousal, and open field activity—A reexamination of emotionality in the rat

Cited by 173 publications

References 57 publications

Behavioral Alterations in Rats Prenatally Exposed to Valproic Acid: Animal Model of Autism

Behavioral Alterations in Rats Prenatally Exposed to Valproic Acid: Animal Model of Autism

Social isolation dysregulates endocrine and behavioral stress while increasing malignant burden of spontaneous mammary tumors

Increasing the incentive salience of cocaine challenges preference for pup- over cocaine-associated stimuli during early postpartum: place preference and locomotor analyses in the lactating female rat

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