Feltenstein Matthew W, Lambdin L Corinne, Webb Heather E, Warnick Jason E, Khan Shabana I, Khan Ikhlas A, Acevedo Edmund O, Sufka Kenneth J
Department of Psychology, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA.
Physiol Behav. 2003 Mar;78(3):489-93. doi: 10.1016/s0031-9384(03)00030-1.
Corticosterone response to separation stress and its sensitivity to the anxiolytic, chlordiazepoxide (CDP), were examined in 7-day-old domestic fowl (Gallus gallus). Saline or CDP (8.0 mg/kg) was injected intramuscularly 30 min before tests. Chicks were placed in isolation either with or without mirrors for a 15-min observation period, in which distress vocalizations were recorded. After testing, chicks were euthanized and blood was collected for the corticosterone assay. Chicks tested in the No-Mirror condition displayed an increase in vocalizations that was attenuated by CDP. Similarly, corticosterone levels were highest in chicks tested in the No-Mirror condition; however, CDP only modestly attenuated corticosterone levels. The present findings demonstrate that corticosterone levels parallel the behavioral marker of distress vocalizations in this paradigm, but this biological marker may be less sensitive than the behavioral marker to benzodiazepine anxiolytic manipulations.
