Casarrubea Maurizio, Di Giovanni Giuseppe, Crescimanno Giuseppe
Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, Department of Biomedicine, Neuroscience and Advanced Diagnostics (Bi.N.D.), Human Physiology Section "Giuseppe Pagano", University of Palermo, 90134 Palermo, Italy.
Interdepartmental Center for Science Technology (C.I.T.C.), University of Palermo, 90141 Palermo, Italy.
Brain Sci. 2021 May 27;11(6):714. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11060714.
The Hole-Board is an ethologically based tool for investigating the anxiety-related behavior of rats following manipulation of the central anxiety level. The present paper aims to assess behavioral patterning following pharmacological manipulation of emotional assets in Wistar rats tested in this experimental apparatus. For this purpose, the behavior of three groups of rats injected with saline, diazepam or FG7142 was evaluated using conventional quantitative and multivariate T-pattern analyses. The results demonstrate that quantitative analyses of individual components of the behavior, disjointed from the comprehensive behavioral structure, are of narrow utility in the understanding of the subject's emotional condition. Among the components of the behavioral repertoire in rodents tested in the Hole-Board, Edge-Sniff and Head-Dip represent the most significant ones to rate anxiety level. They are characterized by a strong bivariate relationship and are also firmly part of the behavioral architecture, as revealed by the T-pattern analysis (TPA), a multivariate technique able to detect significant relationships among behavioral events over time. Edge-Sniff → Head-Dip sequences, in particular, are greatly influenced by the level of anxiety: barely detectable in control animals, they completely disappear in subjects with a reduced level of anxiety and are present in almost 25% of the total of T-patterns detected in subjects whose anxiety level increased.
孔板是一种基于行为学的工具，用于研究在中枢焦虑水平受到操控后大鼠的焦虑相关行为。本文旨在评估在该实验装置中接受测试的Wistar大鼠在对情绪资产进行药理学操控后的行为模式。为此，使用传统的定量和多变量T型模式分析评估了三组分别注射生理盐水、地西泮或FG7142的大鼠的行为。结果表明，将行为的各个组成部分进行定量分析，脱离全面的行为结构，在理解实验对象的情绪状况方面效用有限。在孔板测试的啮齿动物行为库的组成部分中，边缘嗅探和头部 dipping代表评估焦虑水平最重要的部分。它们的特点是具有很强的双变量关系，并且也是行为结构的稳固组成部分，如T型模式分析（TPA）所揭示的那样，这是一种多变量技术，能够检测行为事件随时间的显著关系。特别是，边缘嗅探→头部 dipping序列受到焦虑水平的极大影响：在对照动物中几乎检测不到，在焦虑水平降低的实验对象中完全消失，而在焦虑水平升高的实验对象中，它们几乎占检测到的T型模式总数的25%。
