title: Cognitive performance in rats differing in their inborn anxiety.
abstract: There is profound evidence that cognitive processes and anxiety are interrelated. To learn more about this interaction, the authors tested rats bred for either high (HABs) or low (LABs) anxiety-related behavior in a modified hole board task. This task allows parallel investigation of various cognitive processes and possibly related behavioral dimensions, both under baseline conditions and during cognitively stressful situations. The authors provide evidence that the degree of anxiety is differentially associated with enhanced performance for distinct informational processes in rats. As HABs and LABs did not differ in their anxiety-related behavior after habituation, that is, in a familiar environment during appetitive learning, the authors conclude that anxiety behavior in naive HABs may be due to differential cognitive processing.
authors.affiliation: Behavioral Phenotyping, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany. ohl@mpipsykl.mpg.de
authors.forename: Frauke
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ohl
authors.forename: Angelika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roedel
authors.forename: Corinna
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Storch
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Holsboer
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Landgraf
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000235:genetics*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000235:genetics; D013045:Species Specificity