Differential Effects of Fear on Activity in Novel and Familiar Environments

1963 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 251-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Baron
Keyword(s):  
Locomotor Activity ◽  
Open Field ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Novel Environment ◽  
Shock Compartment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Familiar Environment ◽  
Adaptive Consequences

The locomotor activity of mice was observed in an open field which was either novel or had been explored for 20 min. Immediately before entry into the open field, groups of Ss were given either 0, 4, or 12 shocks in an adjoining compartment. Ss given either 4 or 12 shocks showed a suppression of activity relative to the performance of nonshocked control Ss, suppression being more marked in the familiar than in the novel environment. Within the novel environment shocked Ss were less active than nonshocked Ss near the shock compartment but slightly more active in far areas. In the familiar environment, by contrast, suppression of activity among shocked Ss was manifested in all areas of the open field. It was concluded that activity by fearful animals is influenced by their familiarity with the environment in which the activity occurs and that this relationship can be understood in terms of the adaptive consequences of such behavior in the history of the animal.

scholarly journals Broiler Response to Open Field Test in Early Ontogeny

2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Balážová ◽  
Eva Baranyiová
Keyword(s):  
Locomotor Activity ◽  
Open Field ◽  
Field Test ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Broiler Chickens ◽  
Open Field Test ◽  
Early Ontogeny ◽  
Visual Orientation ◽  
Novel Environment ◽  
Post Hoc

The aim of this study was to observe the development of exploratory behaviour in growing broilers, i.e. their reaction to a novel environment (habituation) during the post-incubation period. Twelve males and twelve females of ROSS 308 line were kept from hatching until 42 days of age in separate pens, under identical husbandry conditions. To study their behaviour, we used the open-field test (OFT). Individual 10-min tests were initiated at the age of 3 days, and were repeated at weekly intervals, i.e. a total of 6 tests were carried out. The results were evaluated using analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated measures and Tukey post-hoc test. Broilers of both sexes were most active during the first OFT on day 3 after hatching. In male broilers, we found a significant decrease in all exploratory activities between the first and 2nd OFT; duration of their horizontal locomotor activity was reduced from 104 ± 51.86 s to 3.50 ± 3.50 s (p < 0.05), duration of visual orientation decreased from 327.50 ± 55.94 s to 125.00 ± 31.94 s (p < 0.001), and duration of vocalizations decreased from 412.50 ± 63.12 s to 90.00 ± 34.25 s (p < 0.001). In females, a significant decrease was observed betwen the first and 2nd OFT only in duration of horizontal locomotor activity that decreased from 234.25 ± 52.07 s to 14.25 ± 8.36 s (p < 0.001) and between the first and 3rd OFT in duration of vocalization (decreasing from 430.00 ± 66.30 s in 1st OFT to 60.00 ± 23.35 s; p < 0.001). On the other hand, a significant increase in duration of comfort behaviour was noted between the first and second OFT in both sexes (in males from 95.00 ± 40.76 s to 462.50 ± 38.81 s; p < 0.001; in females from 85.00 ± 31.73 s to 437.50 ± 67.74 s; p < 0.001). Changes in defecation numbers were not significant in either sex. Our findings show that the most profound changes in behaviour of broiler chickens occurred between the first and second OFT, that male broilers used visual orientation in the open field arena more than females in the first test, they vocalized less in the second test, and they seem to have habituated to the novel environment earlier than females.

Head direction cell activity monitored in a novel environment and during a cue conflict situation

1995 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 1953-1971 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Taube ◽  
H. L. Burton
Keyword(s):  
Cell Activity ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Head Direction ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Thalamic Nuclei ◽  
Novel Environment ◽  
Preferred Direction ◽  
Anterior Thalamic Nuclei ◽  
Familiar Environment

1. Recent conceptualizations of the neural systems used during navigation have classified two types of sensory information used by animals: landmark cues and internally based (idiothetic; e.g., vestibular, kinesthetic) sensory cues. Previous studies have identified neurons in the postsubiculum and the anterior thalamic nuclei that discharge as a function of the animal's head direction in the horizontal plane. The present study was designed to determine how animals use head direction (HD) cells for spatial orientation and the types of sensory cues involved. 2. HD cell activity was monitored in the postsubiculum and anterior thalamic nucleus of rats in a dual-chamber apparatus in an experiment that consisted of two phases. In the first phase, HD cell activity was monitored as an animal moved from a familiar environment to a novel environment. It was hypothesized that if HD cells were capable of using idiothetic sensory information, then the direction of maximal discharge should remain relatively unchanged as the animal moved into an environment where it was unfamiliar with the landmark cues. In the second phase, HD cells were monitored under conditions in which a conflict situation was introduced between the established landmark cues and the animal's internally generated sensory cues. 3. HD cells were initially recorded in a cylinder containing a single orientation cue (familiar environment). A door was then opened, and the rat entered a U-shaped passageway leading to a rectangular chamber containing a different prominent cue (novel environment). For most HD cells, the preferred direction remained relatively constant between the cylinder and passageway/rectangle, although many cells showed a small (6-30 degrees) shift in their preferred direction in the novel environment. This directional shift was maintained across different episodes in the passageway/rectangle. 4. Before the next session, the orientation cue in the cylinder was rotated 90 degrees, and the animal returned to the cylinder. The cell's preferred direction usually shifted between 45 and 90 degrees in the same direction. 5. The rat was then permitted to walk back through the passageway into the now-familiar rectangle. Immediately upon entering the passageway, the preferred direction returned to its original (prerotation) orientation and remained at this value while the rat was in the rectangle. When the rat was allowed to walk back into the cylinder, one of three outcomes occurred: 1) the cell's preferred direction shifted, such that it remained linked to the cylinder's rotated cue card; 2) the cell's preferred direction remained unchanged from its orientation in the rectangle; or 3) the cell's preferred direction shifted to a new value that lay between the preferred directions for the rotated cylinder condition and rectangle. 6. There was little change in the HD cell's background firing rate, peak firing rate, or directional firing range for both the novel and cue-conflict situations. 7. Simultaneous recordings from multiple cells in different sessions showed that the preferred directions remained "in register" with one another. Thus, when one HD cell shifted its preferred direction a specific amount, the other HD cell also shifted its preferred direction the same amount. 8. Results across different series within the same animal showed that the amount the preferred direction shifted in the first Novel series was about the same amount as the shifts observed in subsequent Novel series. In contrast, as the animal experienced more Conflict series, HD cells tended to use the cylinder's cue card less as an orientation cue when the animal returned to the rotated cylinder condition from the rectangle. 9. These results suggest that HD cells in the postsubiculum and anterior thalamic nuclei receive information from both landmark and idiothetic sensory cues, and when both types of cues are available, HD cells preferentially use the landmark cues as long as they are perceived

Differential Modulation of CA1 and Dentate Gyrus Interneurons During Exploration of Novel Environments

2004 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 863-872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Nitz ◽  
Bruce McNaughton
Keyword(s):  
Dentate Gyrus ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Specific Activity ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Novel Environment ◽  
Principal Cells ◽  
Familiar Environment ◽  
Novel Environments

Parallel recordings of hippocampal principal cells and interneurons were obtained as rats foraged in familiar and adjacent, novel environments. Firing rates of each cell type were assessed as a function of spatial location. Many CA1 interneurons exhibited large decreases in activity in the novel compared with the familiar environment. Dentate gyrus interneurons, however, were much more likely to exhibit large increases in firing in the novel environment. Neither effect was correlated with basic interneuron discharge properties such as degree of theta modulation, baseline firing rate or degree of spatially modulated discharge. Both CA1 and dentate gyrus interneuron rate changes extended into regions of the familiar environment bordering the novel environment. Principal cells in CA1 and dentate gyrus exhibited similar patterns of place specific activity each being indicative of incorporation of novel spatial information into the spatial representation of the familiar environment. The data indicate that inhibitory networks in the CA1 and dentate gyrus areas are modulated in a divergent fashion during the acquisition of novel spatial information and that interneuron activities can be used to detect those regions of an environment subject to redistribution of principal cell spatial activity patterns.

scholarly journals Passive Transport Disrupts Directional Path Integration by Rat Head Direction Cells

2003 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 2862-2874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Stackman ◽  
Edward J. Golob ◽  
Joshua P. Bassett ◽  
Jeffrey S. Taube
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Path Integration ◽  
Efference Copy ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Head Direction ◽  
Passive Transport ◽  
Novel Environment ◽  
Preferred Direction ◽  
Idiothetic Cues ◽  
Familiar Environment

A subset of neurons in the rat limbic system encodes head direction (HD) by selectively discharging when the rat points its head in a preferred direction in the horizontal plane. The preferred firing direction is sensitive to the location of landmark cues, as well as idiothetic or self-motion cues (i.e., vestibular, motor efference copy, proprioception, and optic flow). Previous studies have shown that the preferred firing direction remains relatively stable (average shift ± 18°) after the rat walks from a familiar environment into a novel one, suggesting that without familiar landmarks, the preferred firing direction can be maintained using idiothetic cues, a process called directional path integration. This study repeated this experiment and manipulated the idiothetic cues available to the rat as it moved between the familiar and novel environment. Motor efference copy/proprioceptive cues were disrupted by passively transporting the animal between the familiar and novel environment. Darkening the room as the animal moved to the novel environment eliminated optic flow cues. HD cell preferred firing directions shifted in the novel environment by an average of 30° after locomotion from the familiar environment with the room lights off; by an average of 70° after passive transport from the familiar environment with the room lights on; and by an average of 67° after passive transport with the room lights off. These findings are consistent with the view that motor efference copy/proprioception cues are important for maintaining the preferred firing direction of HD cells under conditions requiring path integration.

Responses of Protein Malnourished Rats to Novel Objects

1972 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 319-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert R. Zimmermann ◽  
Stephanie J. Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Open Field ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
Experimental Animals ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Environmental Stimulation ◽  
Familiar Objects

Rats deprived of normal amounts of protein early in life and then rehabilitated were placed in an open field in the presence of either familiar or novel objects. In the presence of the familiar objects, the experimental animals did not differ from controls. In the presence of the novel object, animals with a history of early malnutrition were less active than controls. The data are consistent with other findings that indicate that the rat suffering early malnutrition reacts more emotionally to environmental stimulation.

“What Freedom?”

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-331
Author(s):  
John Owen Havard
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Free Condition ◽  
Narrative Design ◽  
Economic Liberalism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
John Owen

John Owen Havard, “‘What Freedom?’: Frankenstein, Anti-Occidentalism, and English Liberty” (pp. 305–331) “If he were vanquished,” Victor Frankenstein states of his monstrous creation in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), “I should be a free man.” But he goes on: “Alas! what freedom? such as the peasant enjoys when his family have been massacred before his eyes, his cottage burnt, his lands laid waste, and he is turned adrift, homeless, pennyless, and alone, but free.” Victor’s circumstances approximate the deracinated subject of an emergent economic liberalism, while looking to other destitute and shipwrecked heroes. Yet the ironic “freedom” described here carries an added charge, which Victor underscores when he concludes this account of his ravaged condition: “Such would be my liberty.” This essay revisits the geographic plotting of Frankenstein: the digression to the East in the nested “harem” episode, the voyage to England, the neglected episode of Victor’s imprisonment in Ireland, and the creature’s desire to live in South America. Locating Victor’s concluding appeal to his “free” condition within the novel’s expansive geography amplifies the political stakes of his downfall, calling attention to not only his own suffering but the wider trail of destruction left in his wake. Where existing critical accounts have emphasized the French Revolution and its violent aftermath, this obscures the novel’s pointed critique of a deep and tangled history of English liberty and its destructive legacies. Reexamining the novel’s geography in tandem with its use of form similarly allows us to rethink the overarching narrative design of Frankenstein, in ways that disrupt, if not more radically dislocate, existing rigid ways of thinking about the novel.

Prenatal Pregabalin Exposure Alters Postnatal Pain Sensitivity and Some Behavioral Responses in Adult Offspring Rats

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-214
Author(s):  
Manzumeh-Shamsi Meymandi ◽  
Gholamreza Sepehri ◽  
Amirhossein Moslemizadeh ◽  
Seyyed Sajjad Vakili Shahrbabaki
Keyword(s):  
Locomotor Activity ◽  
Open Field ◽  
Prenatal Exposure ◽  
Pain Sensitivity ◽  
Sucrose Preference ◽  
Pain Response ◽  
Adult Offspring ◽  
Hot Plate ◽  
Hot Plate Test ◽  
Plate Test

Background: Prenatal antiepileptic drug exposure could demonstrate both congenital malformations and behavioral impairments in offspring. Objective: This study was performed to assess the effects of prenatal exposure to pregabalin (PGB) on pain response, anxiety, motor activity and some behavior of adult offspring rats. Methods: Pregnant Wistar rats received PGB (7.5, 15 and 30 mg/kg/ip) during embryonic days 9.5- 15.5. The pain response, anxiety-like behaviors, locomotor activity, motor balance and coordination and anhedonia of adult offspring were examined by tail-flick and hot plate test, open field test, elevated plus maze (EPM), beam balance test and sucrose preference test in their 60th day of life, respectively. Results: Prenatal exposure to PGB revealed significant dose-dependent reduction in pain sensitivity (increase in pain latency response) in the hot plate test, especially in females, while anxiety-like behavior assessed in EPM and open field significantly reduced in males. In the open field, locomotor activity reduced significantly after exposure to PGB 30 mg/kg and motor coordination decreased dose-dependently, especially in males. Anhedonia, as an indication of sucrose preference or pleasure response, was not changed. Conclusion: These findings suggest that prenatal PGB exposure could be associated with significant changes in pain response, anxiety, locomotor activity and coordination in adult offspring rats.

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