van Haaren F, van de Poll N E
Physiol Behav. 1984 Aug;33(2):269-72. doi: 10.1016/0031-9384(84)90110-0.
Different groups of male and female Wistar rats were exposed to a standard passive avoidance procedure in which the number of pre-shock trials was experimentally manipulated (1, 3 or 9 trials). Sexually dimorphic passive avoidance behavior was observed after 1 and 3 pre-shock trials. Entrance latencies on the pre-shock trials did not differ for males and females after 1 trial. In the 3 trial condition, latencies differed between the sexes and were also a function of repeated trials for male subjects, as their latencies increased over trials, while those of females did not. When 9 pre-shock trials were presented, the sex difference in entrance latencies was still observed, but latencies increased for both males and females. Although the results of the experiment suggest that sex differences in passive avoidance behavior might be attributable to sex differences in habituation processes to the stimuli associated with exposure to the platform, correlations between the latencies on the final pre-shock trial and behavior on the post-shock trial were not significant. The variables responsible for the occurrence of sexual dimorphism in passive avoidance behavior remain, therefore, largely unknown. The interpretation of this behavioral difference in terms of more general differences between males and females should proceed very cautiously.
将不同组的雄性和雌性Wistar大鼠置于标准被动回避程序中，其中电击前试验的次数经过实验操纵（1次、3次或9次试验）。在1次和3次电击前试验后观察到了性二态性被动回避行为。在1次试验后，雄性和雌性在电击前试验中的进入潜伏期没有差异。在3次试验条件下，两性的潜伏期存在差异，并且对于雄性受试者来说，潜伏期也是重复试验的一个函数，因为它们的潜伏期随着试验次数增加，而雌性则不然。当进行9次电击前试验时，进入潜伏期的性别差异仍然存在，但雄性和雌性的潜伏期都增加了。尽管实验结果表明被动回避行为中的性别差异可能归因于对与接触平台相关刺激的习惯化过程中的性别差异，但电击前最后一次试验的潜伏期与电击后试验行为之间的相关性并不显著。因此，导致被动回避行为出现性二态性的变量在很大程度上仍然未知。基于雄性和雌性之间更普遍的差异来解释这种行为差异时应非常谨慎。
