University of New South Wales, School of Psychology, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
University of New South Wales, School of Psychology, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2022 Dec;143:104962. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104962. Epub 2022 Nov 17.
Recent meta-analyses have demonstrated that data from female rodents, tested without regard for estrous stage, is no more variable than male data across a range of traits. Nonetheless, widespread use of male-only samples persists in preclinical studies of anxiety disorders, despite this condition being twice more prevalent amongst women relative to men. We conducted a meta-analysis of over 4900 data points obtained from 263 articles assessing behavioural measures of fear and anxiety in rodents. We found no evidence for greater female variability on any measure. Overall, males had greater variability than unstaged females, which was predominantly driven by studies of learned fear. Compared to unstaged females, staged, but not ovariectomised, females showed reduced variability. Experiments using individual housing and rats were associated with greater variability relative to those using group housing and mice; these effects were not moderated by sex. These results illustrate that the estrous cycle does not inflate variability in females beyond that of males, despite being a female-specific modulator of fear and anxiety behaviour.
最近的荟萃分析表明，在一系列特征中，不考虑动情期的雌性啮齿动物的数据与雄性数据一样具有变异性。尽管如此，在焦虑症的临床前研究中，仍然普遍使用仅雄性样本，尽管这种情况在女性中比男性更为普遍。我们对 263 篇评估啮齿动物恐惧和焦虑行为测量的文章中的超过 4900 个数据点进行了荟萃分析。我们没有发现任何证据表明女性在任何指标上的变异性更大。总体而言，雄性的变异性大于未分期的雌性，这主要是由于学习恐惧的研究所致。与未分期的雌性相比，分期但未去卵巢的雌性显示出变异性降低。与使用群体饲养和小鼠的实验相比，使用个体饲养和大鼠的实验与更大的变异性相关；这些影响不受性别调节。这些结果表明，尽管动情周期是恐惧和焦虑行为的女性特异性调节剂，但它不会使女性的变异性超过男性。
