Nicholls B, Springham A, Mellanby J
University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychology, UK.
J Neurosci Methods. 1992 Jul;43(2-3):171-80. doi: 10.1016/0165-0270(92)90026-a.
A new test, called the 'playground maze', is described. Rat exploratory responses to a single novel object are measured in the context of responses to 7 familiar objects in a familiar environment. Responses are measured as time spent in areas around the objects on a circular open field. These times are expressed as percentages of the total time spent exploring all the objects and a value which is significantly greater than the expected chance level (12.5%) indicates a novelty response. The paths traversed by the animals on the maze are also recorded and the lengths of these give a measure of locomotion. Preliminary experiments on the effects of chlordiazepoxide (CDP) (1-5 mg/kg) and amphetamine (1.5-4 mg/kg) are reported. CDP significantly increased the novelty response but had no effect on locomotion. Amphetamine treatment at 4 mg/kg abolished the response to novel objects while lower doses (1.5 and 2 mg/kg) did not affect it. All 3 doses of amphetamine significantly increased locomotion. This test provides a new way of measuring the exploratory response to novelty under low stress conditions and allows the separation of drug effects on directed exploration and locomotion.
本文描述了一种名为“游乐场迷宫”的新测试。在熟悉环境中对7个熟悉物体的反应背景下，测量大鼠对单个新物体的探索反应。反应以在圆形开阔场地中物体周围区域花费的时间来衡量。这些时间以探索所有物体所花费的总时间的百分比表示，显著高于预期机会水平（12.5%）的值表明存在新奇反应。还记录了动物在迷宫中走过的路径，其长度可衡量运动情况。报告了关于氯氮卓（CDP）（1 - 5毫克/千克）和苯丙胺（1.5 - 4毫克/千克）作用的初步实验。氯氮卓显著增加了新奇反应，但对运动没有影响。4毫克/千克的苯丙胺处理消除了对新物体的反应，而较低剂量（1.5和2毫克/千克）则没有影响。所有3个剂量的苯丙胺都显著增加了运动。该测试提供了一种在低压力条件下测量对新奇事物探索反应的新方法，并允许区分药物对定向探索和运动的影响。
