title: Ontogenetic formation of the ability of rats to count time endogenously and its relationship with the level of anxiety.
abstract: Improvements in the ability to count time endogenously with maturation in rats depends on the normal age dynamics of anxious-phobic state and is associated with the state of the peripheral compartment of the sympatheticoadrenal system. Increases in the lengths of locomotive excursions were accompanied by decreases in anxious-phobic state and increases in the quality of time-keeping. In rats aged three and six months (but not in one-month-old rats), the ability to count time endogenously showed a parabolic relationship with initial anxious-phobic state: the most precise and efficient counting of time intervals needs a certain intermediate level of anxiety, covering a relatively narrow range. Anxious-phobic states beyond this optimum, either increases or decreases, lead to degradation of chronometric ability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Stavropol State University, 1 Pushkin Street, 355009 Stavropol, Russia.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Vodolazhskaya
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002395:Catecholamines / Q000652:urine; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D010275:Parasympathetic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D002395:Catecholamines