Fernández-Teruel A, Driscoll P, Gil L, Aguilar R, Tobeña A, Escorihuela R M
Medical Psychology Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra 08193, Barcelona, Spain.
Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2002 Aug;73(1):225-31. doi: 10.1016/s0091-3057(02)00784-0.
The Roman high- and low-avoidance (RHA/Verh and RLA/Verh) rat lines represent, respectively, low emotional/anxious and high novelty seeker vs. high emotional/anxious and low novelty seeker profiles. In the present study, RLA/Verh and RHA/Verh rats, either reared in pairs from weaning (untreated) or reared in groups of 8-10 in an enriched environment until the age of 7 months, were tested for exploratory and novelty-seeking behavior in the hole board (including novel objects under the holes), as well as for their preference for saccharin-water and ethanol-water in a two-bottle free-choice paradigm. Testing started when rats were 20 months old in order to study the long-lasting effects of differential rearing. RHA/Verh rats explored more and showed greater preference for (and intake of) saccharin as well as for ethanol than RLA/Verh rats, thus confirming their validity as a rat model for sensation/reward seeking. Environmental enrichment (EE) increased head-dipping behavior (i.e., novelty seeking) in both rat lines, without affecting locomotor activity. EE treatment increased the preference for, and volume intake of, saccharin (especially at the higher concentrations tested) in the relatively low saccharin-preferring RLA/Verh rats, and also enhanced ethanol consumption in both rat lines. Thus, the results demonstrate consistent and enduring effects of EE on incentive-seeking behavior and further the analysis of how individual differential predispositions for the need of novelty and contact with (or consumption of) rewarding substances arise through either biological (genetic) or early environmental factors, or both.
罗马高回避和低回避（RHA/Verh和RLA/Verh）大鼠品系分别代表低情绪/焦虑和高新奇寻求者与高情绪/焦虑和低新奇寻求者的特征。在本研究中，将从断奶开始成对饲养（未处理）或在丰富环境中以8 - 10只为一组饲养至7个月大的RLA/Verh和RHA/Verh大鼠，在洞板中测试其探索和新奇寻求行为（包括洞下的新物体），以及在双瓶自由选择范式中对糖精水和乙醇水的偏好。测试在大鼠20个月大时开始，以研究不同饲养方式的长期影响。与RLA/Verh大鼠相比，RHA/Verh大鼠探索更多，对糖精以及乙醇表现出更大的偏好（和摄入量），从而证实了它们作为感觉/奖励寻求大鼠模型的有效性。环境丰富化（EE）增加了两个大鼠品系的探头行为（即新奇寻求），而不影响运动活动。EE处理增加了相对低糖精偏好的RLA/Verh大鼠对糖精的偏好和摄入量（特别是在测试的较高浓度下），并且也增加了两个大鼠品系的乙醇消耗量。因此，结果表明EE对奖励寻求行为具有一致且持久的影响，并进一步分析了个体对新奇的需求以及与奖励物质接触（或消耗）的差异易感性是如何通过生物（遗传）或早期环境因素，或两者共同产生的。
