title: Cognitive bias in the chick anxiety-depression model.
abstract: Cognitive bias is a phenomenon that presents in clinical populations where anxious individuals tend to adopt a more pessimistic-like interpretation of ambiguous aversive stimuli whereas depressed individuals tend to adopt a less optimistic-like interpretation of ambiguous appetitive stimuli. To further validate the chick anxiety-depression model as a neuropsychiatric simulation we sought to quantify this cognitive endophenotype. Chicks exposed to an isolation stressor of 5m to induce an anxiety-like or 60 m to induce a depressive-like state were then tested in a straight alley maze to a series of morphed ambiguous appetitive (chick silhouette) to aversive (owl silhouette) cues. In non-isolated controls, runway start and goal latencies generally increased as a function of greater amounts of aversive characteristics in the cues. In chicks in the anxiety-like state, runway latencies were increased to aversive ambiguous cues, reflecting more pessimistic-like behavior. In chicks in the depression-like state, runway latencies were increased to both aversive and appetitive ambiguous cues, reflecting more pessimistic-like and less optimistic-like behavior, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS 38677, USA. alsalmet@olemiss.edu
authors.forename: Amy L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Salmeto
authors.forename: Kristen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Hymel
authors.forename: Erika C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.forename: Ben O
authors.initials: BO
authors.lastname: Brilot
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bateson
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Sufka
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D015982:Bias; D002645:Chickens; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D003463:Cues; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D058068:Endophenotypes; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000502:physiology; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000009:adverse effects; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology