R. Andreatini et Lfs. Bacellar, Animal models: Trait or state measure? The test-retest reliability of the elevated plus-maze and behavioral despair, PROG NEUR-P, 24(4), 2000, pp. 549-560
Citations number
41
Categorie Soggetti
Neurosciences & Behavoir
Journal title
PROGRESS IN NEURO-PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
1. The use of animal models in certain types of psychobiological studies (f
or instance, the relationship between anxiety and depression) requires that
the behavior measured is stable over time.
2. The test-retest reliability of the elevated plus-maze indexes of anxiety
and the immobility time in the behavioral despair were evaluated.
3. The behavior of two groups of drug naive mice was measured on two occasi
ons on the same test, 1 week apart, on the elevated plus-maze or on the beh
avioral despair and then the intraclass correlation coefficient and kappa w
ere calculated.
4. These behaviors showed a very low intraclass correlation coefficient (0.
02 - 0.05) and low kappa (0.08 - 0.21) in the test-retest design, which sug
gest a poor reliability of these measures.
5. These results suggest that the behavioral parameters of the elevated plu
s-maze and the behavioral despair are not stable and therefore they are pos
sibly more related to state than trait characteristics. Therefore they appe
ar to be not appropriate to evaluate trait characteristics which are suppos
ed to be stable over time without treatment.