title: Early stimulation effects on novelty-induced behavior in two psychogenetically-selected rat lines with divergent emotionality profiles.
abstract: The present study shows that postnatal handling (H: consisting of removing the pups from the nest twice daily and placing them individually in plastic cages lined with paper towel for a period of 10 min, between postnatal days 1 and 21) and/or environmental enrichment (E: for a period of 6 months) of Roman high- and low-avoidance (RHA/Verh and RLA/Verh) rats induced long-lasting decreases in emotional reactivity (i.e. reduced defecations in the open field, OF, and hole-board, HB, tests) as well as increases in exploratory behavior (i.e. head-dipping) in a manner dependent upon the rat line (there were 'line x H' and 'line x E' interactions). It is reported for the first time that RHA/Verh rats show more head-dipping behavior than RLA/Verh rats, and that the environmental treatments can increase head-dipping of RLA/Verh animals to the level shown by RHA/Verh rats.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fernández-Teruel
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Escorihuela
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Núñez
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gomà
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Driscoll
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tobeña
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D003672:Defecation / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D004777:Environment; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains