title: Rats (Rattus norvegicus) selectively bred to differ in avoidance behavior also differ in response to novelty stress, in glycemic conditioning, and in reward contrast.
abstract: The behavior of the Syracuse high avoidance (SHA) and Syracuse low avoidance (SLA) rats, selectively bred by Brush (F. R. Brush, J. C. Froehlich, & P. Sakellaris, 1979, Behavior Genetics, 9, 309-316) to differ in avoidance behavior, was examined in several different tasks. The SLA rats showed a greater elevation in plasma glucose when exposed to a novel environment; after 7 days of exposure to this environment there was evidence of habituation in the SHA rats but not in the SLA rats; the SHA rats showed a hyperglycemic conditioned response in a glycemic conditioning procedure, the SLA rats showed no evidence of conditioning but had higher overall levels of plasma glucose; both strains showed reliable successive negative contrast effects in consummatory behavior when shifted from 32 to 4% sucrose, but the contrast was larger in the SLA rats; the administration of chlordiazepoxide eliminated negative contrast in the SLA rats but had no effect on contrast in the SHA rats; and the SLA rats were reliably heavier than the SHA rats. The behavioral differences were considered in the context of differences in emotional reactivity between the two strains.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903.
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Flaherty
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Rowan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D002707:Chlordiazepoxide / Q000494:pharmacology; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000097:blood; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D007328:Insulin / Q000494:pharmacology; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D012931:Social Environment; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D007328:Insulin; D002707:Chlordiazepoxide; D003345:Corticosterone