COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT BEHAVIORAL-TEST SITUATIONS USED IN PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY FOR MEASUREMENT OF ANXIETY

In order to estimate the consistency of variables measured in differen t test situations classically used in psychopharmacology, a set of hyb rid mice was confronted with five testing situations: responses to a n ovel object introduced in a familiar environment, responses to novel p laces, behavior in a light/dark choice situation, on the holeboard, an d in an elevated plus maze. A principal component analysis was perform ed using two variables per device as active variables and 26 others as supplementary variables. The first factor was clearly due to oppositi on between high and low levels of neophobia. Only variables from the f irst two tests were strongly correlated to this factor. Variables from the holeboard and from the plus maze were highly correlated one anoth er and with the second factor, which grouped locomotion and exploratio n criteria. The light/dark choice test was intermediate and seemed to be moderately related to both locomotion and neophobia. These results point out the difficulty in comparing different test devices from a ps ychological point of view.