Sexually Dimorphic Risk Mitigation Strategies in Rats.

ABSTRACT: The scientific understanding of fear and anxiety-in both normal and pathological forms-is presently limited by a predominance of studies that use male animals and Pavlovian fear conditioning-centered paradigms that restrict and assess specific behaviors (e.g., freezing) over brief sampling periods and overlook the broader contributions of the spatiotemporal context to an animal's behavioral responses to threats. Here, we use a risky "closed economy" system, in which the need to acquire food and water and the need to avoid threats are simultaneously integrated into the lives of rats, to examine sex differences in mitigating threat risk while foraging. Rats lived for an extended period (∼2 months) in enlarged chambers that consisted of a safe, bedded nest and a risky foraging area where foot

SUBMITTER: Pellman BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5292597 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan-Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature