P. Ferre et al., BEHAVIOR OF THE ROMAN VERH HIGH-AVOIDANCE AND LOW-AVOIDANCE RAT LINESIN ANXIETY TESTS - RELATIONSHIP WITH DEFECATION AND SELF-GROOMING, Physiology & behavior, 58(6), 1995, pp. 1209-1213
The Swiss sublines of Roman high- and low-avoidance (RHA/Verh and RLA/
Verh) rats have been selected and bred for rapid (RHA/Verh) vs. extrem
ely poor (RLA/Verh) acquisition of two-way active avoidance. Behaviora
l and physiological measures of emotionality, or reactivity to stress,
appear to be among the most prominent characteristics differentiating
both rat lines. The present study shows that RLA/Verh rats are more s
ensitive, as compared to their RHA/Verh counterparts, to the conflict
involved in the shock-induced suppression of drinking paradigm, as wel
l as in a hyponeophagia test. RLA/Verh rats also showed higher defecat
ion values which were significantly correlated with the main hyponeoph
agia test variables. Likewise, self-grooming was more frequent in RLA/
Verh rats than in their RHA/Verh counterparts and showed significant c
orrelations with conflict-related behaviors (i.e., latency to start ea
ting and time spent eating) from the hyponeophagia test. These results
give additional support to the contention that RLA/Verh rats present
higher anxiety (emotionality) than their RHA/Verh counterparts.