Dai H, Krost M, Carey R J
VA Medical Center, Syracuse, NY, USA.
J Neurosci Methods. 1995 Nov;62(1-2):169-74. doi: 10.1016/0165-0270(95)00073-9.
This report details a new method to measure habituation in an open-field. In addition to the measurement of spontaneous locomotor activity, time spent per visit to the center zone (CZ) is also measured. Critically, a small object is placed in the CZ to modulate an animal's investigatory response. When an animal is first exposed to the open-field, the presence of the object does not affect the duration of its visits to the CZ but, if the animal is given one additional 10-min exposure to the open-field, then the presence of the object substantially increases the duration of its visits to the CZ. The presence of the object, however, has no effect on the rat's locomotor activity. Thus, habituation could be observed by two different measures: a decrease in locomotor activity and an increase in an animal's investigatory response to a stimulus object. A basic problem with a reliance solely upon a decrease in locomotor activity to measure habituation is that it represents a negative change in behavior. The present method circumvents this shortcoming by incorporating a positive behavioral measure of habituation in conjunction with the measurement of locomotor activity. This modification of the open-field test offers substantial utility for studies of neurotoxicology and memory because one can assess concurrently treatment effects on motor activity, attention to an object and memory.
本报告详细介绍了一种在旷场中测量习惯化的新方法。除了测量自发运动活动外，还测量每次进入中心区域（CZ）所花费的时间。关键的是，在中心区域放置一个小物体来调节动物的探究反应。当动物首次暴露于旷场时，物体的存在不会影响其进入中心区域的持续时间，但是，如果让动物再额外暴露于旷场10分钟，那么物体的存在会显著增加其进入中心区域的持续时间。然而，物体的存在对大鼠的运动活动没有影响。因此，可以通过两种不同的测量方法观察到习惯化：运动活动的减少和动物对刺激物体探究反应的增加。仅依赖运动活动的减少来测量习惯化的一个基本问题是，它代表了行为的负面变化。本方法通过将习惯化的积极行为测量与运动活动测量相结合，规避了这一缺点。这种对旷场试验的改进为神经毒理学和记忆研究提供了很大的实用性，因为可以同时评估对运动活动、对物体的注意力和记忆的治疗效果。
