Stability and variability of locomotor responses of laboratory rodents. I. Native exploratory and basal locomotor activity of Albino-Swiss mice.
The exploratory and basal locomotor activities were tested in four groups of Albino-Swiss mice twice, at a 4-5 day interval, to investigate the variability of responses and correlation between the exploratory and basal locomotor activity, and their stability in individual animals. We have found that there exists only a weak correlation between the exploratory and basal locomotor activities. The repetition of tests results in a slight but significant depression of the exploratory, but not of the basal locomotor activity. The correlation between individual performances in two subsequent tests is generally low, regarding both the exploratory and the basal locomotor activity. There are no differences in the density of cerebral alpha 1-adrenoceptors between mice exhibiting extremely different exploratory or basal locomotor activities. The results suggest that preselection of mice for the tests involving locomotor activity in attempt to reduce the variability of results is pointless.
Vetulani
J
J
Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Acaodemy of Sciences, Kraków.
Marona-Lewicka
D
D
Michaluk
J
J
Antkiewicz-Michaluk
L
L
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D011224:Prazosin; D011869:Radioligand Assay; D011942:Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha / Q000502:physiology
D011942:Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha; D011224:Prazosin