Event Abstract Back to Event Unlearned anxiety predicts learned fear: A comparison among heterogeneous rats and the Roman rat strains Regina Lopez-Aumatell1*, Elia Vicens-Costa1, Esther Martinez-Membrives1, Toni Canete1, Gloria Blazquez1, Adolf Tobena1 and Alberto Fernandez-Teruel1 1 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain We present the behavioural phenotyping of a large sample of rats from the National Institutes of Health Genetically Heterogeneous Rat Stock (N/Nih-HS), including males and females, and the comparison of their results with the RLA-I (very anxious) and RHA-I (low anxious) rat strains. Rats were tested in several anxiety tests comprising unlearned fear (like the novel-cage activity, the elevated “zero” maze and the baseline acoustic startle response), as well as learned fear/anxiety responses (fear-potentiated startle and two-way active shuttlebox avoidance). The results overall showed that unlearned anxiety responses/behaviour were predictive of behaviour in learned fear (i.e. fear-potentiated startle) and conflict (i.e. two-way active avoidance acquisition) situations. N/Nih-HS rats either resemble RLA-I rat anxiety/fear scores or fall in between those of the RLA-I (high anxious) and the RHA-I (low anxious) rat strains. Regression analysis of the N/Nih-HS rat data show that unconditioned anxiety predicts learned fear to some extent, and point that startle measures may have a facilitating role in the rat’s active responses in the two-way active (shuttlebox) avoidance acquisition. Acknowledgements:Partially supported by EURATools (European Commission Contract no. LSHG-CT-2005-019015) and the Wellcome Trust (R. L-A). Conference: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting, Rhodes Island, Greece, 13 Sep - 18 Sep, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster presentations Citation: Lopez-Aumatell R, Vicens-Costa E, Martinez-Membrives E, Canete T, Blazquez G, Tobena A and Fernandez-Teruel A (2009). Unlearned anxiety predicts learned fear: A comparison among heterogeneous rats and the Roman rat strains. Conference Abstract: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.08.2009.09.221 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 11 Jun 2009; Published Online: 11 Jun 2009. * Correspondence: Regina Lopez-Aumatell, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain, regina.lopez@uab.es Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Regina Lopez-Aumatell Elia Vicens-Costa Esther Martinez-Membrives Toni Canete Gloria Blazquez Adolf Tobena Alberto Fernandez-Teruel Google Regina Lopez-Aumatell Elia Vicens-Costa Esther Martinez-Membrives Toni Canete Gloria Blazquez Adolf Tobena Alberto Fernandez-Teruel Google Scholar Regina Lopez-Aumatell Elia Vicens-Costa Esther Martinez-Membrives Toni Canete Gloria Blazquez Adolf Tobena Alberto Fernandez-Teruel PubMed Regina Lopez-Aumatell Elia Vicens-Costa Esther Martinez-Membrives Toni Canete Gloria Blazquez Adolf Tobena Alberto Fernandez-Teruel Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.