Hall F S, Humby T, Wilkinson L S, Robbins T W
Department of Experimental Psychology, Cambridge University, England.
Physiol Behav. 1997 Aug;62(2):299-303. doi: 10.1016/s0031-9384(97)00117-0.
In the previous paper isolation-reared rats exhibited enhanced environmental neophobia under some conditions in an open-field. However, previous work has shown that isolation-reared rats have greater preferences for a novel environment in a dimly lit enclosed box. The hypothesis examined in the present experiments was that manipulation of the intrinsic aversive qualities of such an environment, by altering lighting conditions, could reverse the preference which isolation-reared rats exhibit for a novel chamber. When preference for a novel chamber was examined in a non-aversive environment in Experiment 1, isolation-reared rats exhibited a preference for a novel environment which was enhanced compared to social controls. When tested under more aversive white light conditions in Experiment 2, no differences in novelty preference were observed between isolation-reared and socially reared rats. Thus, the increased sensitivity to novel environments by isolation-reared rats appears to be critically dependent on the arousing or aversive properties of the testing conditions.
在之前的论文中，隔离饲养的大鼠在某些条件下于旷场中表现出增强的环境新事物恐惧。然而，先前的研究表明，隔离饲养的大鼠在光线昏暗的封闭盒子中对新环境有更大的偏好。本实验所检验的假设是，通过改变光照条件来操纵这种环境的内在厌恶性特质，可能会逆转隔离饲养的大鼠对新隔间所表现出的偏好。在实验1中，当在非厌恶性环境中检验对新隔间的偏好时，隔离饲养的大鼠表现出对新环境的偏好，与群居对照相比有所增强。在实验2中，当在更具厌恶性的白光条件下进行测试时，未观察到隔离饲养和群居饲养的大鼠在新奇偏好上存在差异。因此，隔离饲养的大鼠对新环境增加的敏感性似乎关键取决于测试条件的激发性或厌恶性特质。
