Abstract
The behavioral effects of putative anxiolytic and anxiogenic drugs are usually evaluated in highly standardized tests. Here, we determined the effects of such drugs in rats housed in mixed sex groups in a seminatural environment. Sexually receptive female Wistar rats were treated with either the anxiolytic drug chlordiazepoxide (2 mg/kg), the anxiogenic drug yohimbine (1 mg/kg), or saline (1 ml/kg). Different emotional challenges eliciting purportedly positive affect (lavender odor, Mozart's music, chocolate flavored food) or negative affect (white noise, fox odor) were then introduced into the seminatural environment. A co-occurrence analysis revealed that music was rather aversive to the rats, as were white noise and fox odor. Lavender and chocolate exposure decreased classical indicators of fear. White noise suppressed sexual behaviors and caused avoidance of the open area. Yohimbine increased sexual receptivity during lavender exposure, decreased the latency to flee the white noise, and increased self-grooming regardless of the emotional challenge. Chlordiazepoxide was effective only during exposure to white noise, and increased the frequency of hiding alone. The modest effects of the drugs in the seminatural environment may be the result of social buffering and rats experiencing a high degree of controllability over their environment.
Highlights
Efficient anxiolytic drugs have been reported to alter behavior in several species of non-human mammals, in contexts producing fear and stress
The events music and fox odor were merged with the white noise and did not present a salient profile
We will focus our analysis on the behaviors during each of the 3 other emotion-inducing events defined by the co-occurrence analysis, being lavender odor, chocolate and white noise
Summary
Efficient anxiolytic drugs have been reported to alter behavior in several species of non-human mammals, in contexts producing fear and stress. With the exception of the social interaction test, all these procedures are based on observation of a single animal at a time. Even though the rat is a gregarious animal, it engages in a number of solitary activities, for example foraging and scavenging in unfamiliar territory. Since most studies of fear and anxiety are concerned with the actions of drugs, and with the potential of these drugs for altering anxiety responses in the human, absence of these basic environmental features is of no concern. It is rather the predictive validity of the test procedures that is of major importance. The many criteria proposed for evaluating predictive validity has been reviewed a number of times (e.g. Cryan and Sweeney, 2012; de Boer and Koolhaas, 2003; Ramos, 2008; Treit, 1985; Willner and Mitchell, 2002), and will not be mentioned here
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