Blanchard R J, Shepherd J K, Rodgers R J, Magee L, Blanchard D C
Bekesy Laboratory of Neurobiology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, HI.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1993;110(1-2):245-53. doi: 10.1007/BF02246981.
The anxiety/defense test battery has been developed to assess defensive reactions in rats to situations associated with a natural predator, the domestic cat. This comprises three paradigms designed to study the effects of cat exposure on general activity and location with respect to the cat (proxemic avoidance), the effects of cat exposure on non-defensive consummatory behavior, and the behavioral response to cat odor. In the present study subjects were exposed to 21 days pretreatment with imipramine (0, 5, and 15 mg/kg), before being assessed in the three experimental paradigms (carried out over a total period of 7 days). Imipramine treatment was maintained on a daily basis during the 7 days taken to complete the series of tests. The data indicated a behaviorally specific profile consistent with anxiety/fear reduction, but not with sedation, in three different paradigms, following treatment with 15 mg/kg imipramine. These behavioral changes included a reduction in freezing, proxemic avoidance and a disinhibition of suppressed feeding in response to cat presentation. Similarly, imipramine treatment (15 mg/kg) significantly reduced behaviors associated with risk assessment (e.g. flat back approach, stretch attend) during presentation of a cat odor stimulus. This behavioral profile suggests that chronic pretreatment with imipramine produces an attenuation of antipredator defensive behavior.
焦虑/防御测试组已被开发出来，用于评估大鼠对与自然捕食者家猫相关情境的防御反应。这包括三个实验范式，旨在研究接触猫对一般活动以及相对于猫的位置（近身回避）的影响、接触猫对非防御性进食行为的影响，以及对猫气味的行为反应。在本研究中，在对三个实验范式（共持续7天）进行评估之前，让实验对象接受了21天的丙咪嗪预处理（0、5和15毫克/千克）。在完成一系列测试的7天期间，每天都持续进行丙咪嗪治疗。数据表明，在使用15毫克/千克丙咪嗪治疗后，在三种不同的范式中出现了与焦虑/恐惧减轻一致的行为特异性特征，但与镇静无关。这些行为变化包括在呈现猫时，僵住、近身回避减少，以及对受抑制进食的去抑制。同样，丙咪嗪治疗（15毫克/千克）在呈现猫气味刺激期间，显著减少了与风险评估相关的行为（如平背接近、伸展留意）。这种行为特征表明，丙咪嗪的长期预处理会减弱反捕食者的防御行为。
