Journal ArticleDOI
The use of a plus-maze to measure anxiety in the mouse
TLDR
The plus-maze appears to be a useful test with which to investigate both anxiolytic and anxiogenic agents.Abstract:
To investigate whether an elevated plus-maze consisting of two open and two closed arms could be used as a model of anxiety in the mouse, NIH Swiss mice were tested in the apparatus immediately after a holeboard test. Factor analysis of data from undrugged animals tested in the holeboard and plus-maze yielded three orthogonal factors interpreted as assessing anxiety, directed exploration and locomotion. Anxiolytic drugs (chlordiazepoxide, sodium pentobarbital and ethanol) increased the proportion of time spent on the open arms, and anxiogenic drugs (FG 7142, caffeine and picrotoxin) reduced this measure. Amphetamine and imipramine failed to alter the indices of anxiety. The anxiolytic effect of chlordiazepoxide was reduced in mice that had previously experienced the plus-maze in an undrugged state. Testing animals in the holeboard immediately before the plus-maze test significantly elevated both the percentage of time spent on the open arms and the total number of arm entries, but did not affect the behavioral response to chlordiazepoxide. The plus-maze appears to be a useful test with which to investigate both anxiolytic and anxiogenic agents.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
The use of the elevated plus maze as an assay of anxiety-related behavior in rodents
Alicia A. Walf,Cheryl A. Frye +1 more
TL;DR: The elevated plus maze is a widely used behavioral assay for rodents and it has been validated to assess the anti-anxiety effects of pharmacological agents and steroid hormones, and to define brain regions and mechanisms underlying anxiety-related behavior.
Journal ArticleDOI
Behavioral phenotypes of inbred mouse strains: implications and recommendations for molecular studies.
Jacqueline N. Crawley,John K. Belknap,Allan C. Collins,John C. Crabbe,Wayne N. Frankel,Norman D. Henderson,Robert Hitzemann,Stephen C. Maxson,Lucinda L. Miner,Alcino J. Silva,Jeanne M. Wehner,Anthony Wynshaw-Boris,Richard Paylor +12 more
TL;DR: Strain distributions are described for open field activity, learning and memory tasks, aggression, sexual and parental behaviors, acoustic startle and prepulse inhibition, and the behavioral actions of ethanol, nicotine, cocaine, opiates, antipsychotics, and anxiolytics.
Journal ArticleDOI
Benzodiazepine actions mediated by specific γ-aminobutyric acid A receptor subtypes
Uwe Rudolph,Florence Crestani,Dietmar Benke,Ina Brünig,Jack A. Benson,Jean-Marc Fritschy,James R. Martin,Horst Bluethmann,Hanns Möhler +8 more
TL;DR: In this article, a histidine-to-arginine point mutation at position 101 of the murine α1-subunit gene was found to render α-type GABAA receptors insensitive to allosteric modulation by benzodiazepine-site ligands, whilst regulation by the physiological neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid is preserved.
Journal ArticleDOI
A review of the validity and variability of the elevated plus-maze as an animal model of anxiety.
TL;DR: The responses from a questionnaire distributed to 65 groups that have published studies using the EPM in the past 3 years has, along with reference to published reports, enabled some conclusions regarding the influencing factors to be drawn.
Journal ArticleDOI
Molecular and neuronal substrate for the selective attenuation of anxiety.
Karin Löw,Florence Crestani,Ruth Keist,Dietmar Benke,Ina Brünig,Jack A. Benson,Jean-Marc Fritschy,Thomas Rülicke,Horst Bluethmann,Hanns Möhler,Uwe Rudolph +10 more
TL;DR: The findings indicate that the anxiolytic effect of benzodiazepine drugs is mediated by alpha2 GABAA receptors, which are largely expressed in the limbic system, but not by alpha3 GAB AA receptors,Which predominate in the reticular activating system.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Validation of open:closed arm entries in an elevated plus-maze as a measure of anxiety in the rat.
TL;DR: A novel test for the selective identification of anxiolytic and anxiogenic drug effects in the rat is described, using an elevated + -maze consisting of two open arms and two enclosed arms, which showed that behaviour on the maze was not clearly correlated either with exploratory head-dipping or spontaneous locomotor activity.
Journal ArticleDOI
Effects of alpha-adrenoceptor agonists and antagonists in a maze-exploration model of 'fear'-motivated behaviour.
TL;DR: Results provide further evidence for the involvement of noradrenergic systems in ‘fear’-motivated behaviour and a paradoxical fall in open arm entries occurred with these agents at higher doses.
Journal ArticleDOI
Validity of head-dipping as a measure of exploration in a modified hole-board.
TL;DR: To determine whether head-dipping could be validated as a measure of exploration a modified hole-board was developed with four holes in the floor, under which novel objects could be placed, and a significant positive correlation between head-Dipping in the “four” and “sixteen” hole-boards was obtained for rats, but not for mice.
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