Early stimulation effects on novelty-induced behavior in two psychogenetically-selected rat lines with divergent emotionality profiles

doi:10.1016/0304-3940(92)90400-2

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 137, Issue 2, 30 March 1992, Pages 185-188

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3940(92)90400-2 Get rights and content

Abstract

The present study shows that postnatal handling (H: consisting of removing the pups from the nest twice daily and placing them individually in plastic cages lined with paper towel for a period of 10 min, between postnatal days 1 and 21) and/or environmental enrichment (E: for a period of 6 months) of Roman high- and low-avoidance (RHA/Verh and RLA/Verh) rats induced long-lasting decreases in emotional reactivity (i.e. reduced defecations in the open field, OF, and hole-board, HB, tests) as well as increases in exploratory behavior (i.e. head-dipping) in a manner dependent upon the rat line (there were ‘line × H’ and ‘line × E’ interactions). It is reported for the first time that RHA/Verh rats show more head-dipping behavior than RLA/Verh rats, and that the environmental treatments can increase head-dipping of RLA/Verh animals to the level shown by RHA/Verh rats.

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Early stimulation effects on novelty-induced behavior in two psychogenetically-selected rat lines with divergent emotionality profiles

Abstract

Anim. Behav.

Brain Res.

Neurosci. Lett.

Physiol. Behav.

Brain Res. Bull.

Pharmacol. Res.

Person. individ. Diff.

Physiol. Behav.

Person. individ. Diff.

Physiol. Behav.

Infantile stimulation induces brain lateralization in rats

Science

Behavioral, emotional and neurochemical profiles of rats selected for extreme differences in active, two-way avoidance performance

Behavioral effects of GABA/benzodiazepine-related drugs and/or early stimulation in the Roman rat lines (Abstract)