Effects of sleep deprivation on cardiac autonomic and pituitary-adrenocortical stress reactivity in rats
A demanding life style, often associated with restricted time for sleep, is a growing problem in our society and may become a major health issue in the near future. Since the physiological stress system plays a critical role in coping with a challenge, it is important to know whether this system is affected by sleep […]
Behavioral profiles and stress-induced corticosteroid secretion in male Wistar rats subjected to short and prolonged periods of maternal separation
Early life experiences are important for the development of neurobiobehavioral mechanisms and subsequent establishment of mental functions. In experimental animals, early life experiences can be studied using the maternal separation model. Maternal separation has been described to induce neurobiological changes and thus affect brain function, mental state and behavior. We have established a protocol in […]
Adult rats exposed to early-life social isolation exhibit increased anxiety and conditioned fear behavior, and altered hormonal stress responses
Social isolation of rodents during development is thought to be a relevant model of early-life chronic stress. We investigated the effects of early-life social isolation on later adult fear and anxiety behavior, and on corticosterone stress responses, in male rats. On postnatal day 21, male rats were either housed in isolation or in groups of […]
Stress enhances return-based behaviors in Wistar rats during spatial navigation without altering spatial performance: Improvement or deficit?
Stress is frequently reported to be deleterious to spatial learning and memory. However, there are many instances in which spatial performance is not affected by stress. This discrepancy observed across different studies, in addition to the animals’ strain and gender, may be caused by the type of the task employed to assess stress-related behavioral changes. […]
Stress inhibits psychomotor performance differently in simple and complex open field environments
Stress affects psychomotor profiles and exploratory behavior in response to environmental features. Here we investigated psychomotor and exploratory patterns induced by stress in a simple open-field arena and a complex, multi-featured environment. Groups of rats underwent seven days of restraint stress or no-stress conditions and were individually tested in three versions of the ziggurat task […]
Reducing the stress of drug administration: implications for the 3Rs
Restraint in animals is known to cause stress but is used during almost all scientific procedures in rodents, representing a major welfare and scientific issue. Administration of substances, a key part of most scientific procedures, almost always involves physical restraint of the animal. In this study, we developed a method to inject substances to rats […]