Department of Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Exp Neurol. 2010 Dec;226(2):293-300. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2010.08.035. Epub 2010 Sep 15.
Electrical stimulation of the dorsolateral periaqueductal gray (dlPAG) has frequently been shown to induce escape and freezing/decreased locomotion responses which mimic panic- and fear-like behaviour. In the present study we tested whether such spontaneous fear-like behaviour could be observed in an open-field test 12 h after dlPAG stimulation. Further, we tested whether this fear-like behaviour could be attenuated by acute or chronic administration of buspirone and escitalopram. Our data demonstrate for the first time that animals showed fear-like behaviour 12 h after dlPAG stimulation, which may possibly reflect panic disorder with anticipatory anxiety/agoraphobic symptoms. Acute and chronic escitalopram, but not buspirone, treatment attenuated the fear-related behaviour. Besides, our data also showed that the stimulation intensities to evoke an escape reaction, a panicogenic response, were significantly higher after chronic buspirone and escitalopram treatment. These results suggest that the fear-like response, which was observed 12 h after dlPAG stimulation, could be considered as a relevant animal model for panic disorder with anticipatory anxiety/agoraphobic symptoms.
电刺激背外侧导水管周围灰质（dlPAG）经常被证明可以诱导逃避和冻结/减少运动反应，模拟恐慌和恐惧样行为。在本研究中，我们测试了在 dlPAG 刺激 12 小时后，是否可以在旷场测试中观察到这种自发的恐惧样行为。此外，我们还测试了急性或慢性给予丁螺环酮和艾司西酞普兰是否可以减轻这种恐惧样行为。我们的数据首次表明，动物在 dlPAG 刺激 12 小时后表现出恐惧样行为，这可能反映了伴有预期焦虑/广场恐怖症状的惊恐障碍。急性和慢性艾司西酞普兰，但不是丁螺环酮治疗，减轻了与恐惧相关的行为。此外，我们的数据还表明，在慢性丁螺环酮和艾司西酞普兰治疗后，引起逃避反应、惊恐反应的刺激强度显著升高。这些结果表明，dlPAG 刺激 12 小时后观察到的恐惧样反应，可以被认为是伴有预期焦虑/广场恐怖症状的惊恐障碍的一个相关动物模型。
