Carew Samantha J, Ghosh Abhinaba
BioMedical Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada.
Bio Protoc. 2020 Mar 20;10(6):e3564. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3564.
Rats are highly social animals, and mainly communicate with one another in two ways: through ultrasonic vocalizations and pheromones. Most research on pheromones has been dedicated those regarding sexual behavior, but more recently pheromones which signal danger to conspecifics have been identified in rodents. In fact, rats are capable of communicating information regarding a specific fear to a companion with which they share a cage. If a rat is trained to associate a previously neutral odor with a foot shock and then pair housed with another rat, the companion will also display a fear response specific to the trained odor, despite never being shocked itself. This communication relies on pheromones; presenting soiled bedding from a shocked rat to an individually housed naïve rat produces the same fear response in the naïve rat. The current protocol describes how to produce this phenomenon in adult Sprague Dawley rats. It is simple and easily reproduced, requires minimal equipment, and may be completed within one week.
大鼠是高度群居的动物，主要通过两种方式相互交流：超声波发声和信息素。大多数关于信息素的研究都集中在性行为方面，但最近在啮齿动物中发现了向同种个体发出危险信号的信息素。事实上，大鼠能够将特定恐惧的信息传递给同笼的同伴。如果一只大鼠经过训练，将一种先前中性的气味与足部电击联系起来，然后与另一只大鼠配对饲养，那么同伴也会对这种经过训练的气味表现出特定的恐惧反应，尽管它自己从未受到电击。这种交流依赖于信息素；将受电击大鼠的脏垫料呈现给单独饲养的未接触过该气味的大鼠，会在这只未接触过该气味的大鼠中产生相同的恐惧反应。本实验方案描述了如何在成年斯普拉格-道利大鼠中产生这种现象。它简单且易于重复，所需设备最少，并且可以在一周内完成。
