Ambiguous-cue interpretation is biased under stress- and depression-like states in rats.

ABSTRACT: Negative cognitive bias-the tendency to interpret ambiguous situations pessimistically-is a central feature of stress-related disorders such as depression. The underlying neurobiology of this bias, however, remains unclear, not least because of a lack of translational tools. We established a new ambiguous-cue interpretation paradigm and, with respect to the etiology of depression, evaluated if environmental and genetic factors contribute to a negative bias. Rats were trained to press a lever to receive a food reward contingent to one tone and to press another lever in response to a different tone to avoid punishment by electric foot-shock. In the ambiguous-cue test, the lever-press responses to tones with frequencies intermediate to the trained tones were taken as indicators for the rats'

SUBMITTER: Enkel T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3055368 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature