G. Griebel et al., THE FREE-EXPLORATORY PARADIGM - AN EFFECTIVE METHOD FOR MEASURING NEOPHOBIC BEHAVIOR IN MICE AND TESTING POTENTIAL NEOPHOBIA-REDUCING DRUGS, Behavioural pharmacology, 4(6), 1993, pp. 637-644
When given the opportunity to choose between a novel and a familiar co
mpartment (free-exploratory paradigm), BALB/c mice exhibited a prefere
nce for familiar places and a marked number of attempts at entry into
the novel compartment followed by avoidance responses. In contrast, C5
7BL/6 mice showed a preference for novel places and very few avoidance
responses towards novelty. When novelty was reduced by two familiar o
dours, fresh sawdust or urine of conspecifics, the neophobia of the BA
LB/c mice was reversed and the animals clearly showed a preference for
the novel compartment. This experimental paradigm can be proposed as
an effective animal model for investigating drugs potentially able to
reduce neophobia in BALB/c mice. The effects of anxiolytics, effective
in the usual animal models of ''state'' anxiety, were investigated in
the free-exploratory paradigm which may model another type of anxiety
termed by Lister (1990) ''trait'' anxiety. Thus, the behavioural effe
cts of two benzodiazepine full agonists, chlordiazepoxide and diazepam
, two non-benzodiazepine partial agonists at benzodiazepine receptors,
Ro 19-8022 and alpidem, the 5-HT1A receptor agonist, 8-OH-DPAT, and t
he 5-HT3 receptor antagonist, zacopride, were assessed in BALB/c and C
57BL/6 mice. Chlordiazepoxide, diazepam and Ro 19-8022 completely reve
rsed the preference of BALB/c mice for the familiar compartment, treat
ed animals exhibiting a significant preference for novel places. In co
ntrast, alpidem, 8-OH-DPAT and zacopride did not significantly modify
their behaviour. Moreover, the same drugs did not modify the specific
responses of C57BL/6 mice toward novelty. These results demonstrate th
at drugs which bind in a non-selective manner to heterogeneous benzodi
azepine recognition sites were very effective in reducing neophobia in
BALB/c mice, whereas 5-HT-interacting drugs were unable to counteract
their neophobic behaviour. Thus, the free-exploratory paradigm can be
proposed as an effective method for testing potential neophobia-(''tr
ait'' anxiety) reducing drugs.