title: Temporal patterns of rat behaviour in the central platform of the elevated plus maze. Comparative analysis between male subjects of strains with different basal levels of emotionality.
abstract: We have analyzed the temporal patterns of behaviour of male rats of the Wistar and DA/Han strains on the central platform of the elevated plus maze. The ethogram encompassed 10 behavioural elements. Durations, frequencies and latencies showed quantitative differences as to walking and sniffing activities. Wistar rats displayed significantly lower latency and significantly higher durations and frequencies of walking activities. DA/Han rats showed a significant increase of sniffing duration. In addition, DA/Han rats showed a significantly higher amount of time spent in the central platform. Multivariate T-pattern analysis revealed differences in the temporal organization of behaviour of the two rat strains. DA/Han rats showed (a) higher behavioural complexity and variability and (b) a significantly higher mean number of T-patterns than Wistar rats. Taken together, T-pattern analysis of behaviour in the centre of the elevated plus maze can noticeably improve the detection of subtle features of anxiety related behaviour. We suggest that T-pattern analysis could be used as sensitive tool to test the action of anxiolytic and anxiogenic manipulations.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Human Physiology Section "Giuseppe Pagano", Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: maurizio.casarrubea@unipa.it.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casarrubea
authors.affiliation: Dept of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Human Physiology Section "Giuseppe Pagano", Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: fabiana.faulisi@unipa.it.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Faulisi
authors.affiliation: Dept of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Human Physiology Section "Giuseppe Pagano", Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: filippocaternicchia@virgilio.it.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Caternicchia
authors.affiliation: Dept of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child Health, University of Florence, Florence, Italy. Electronic address: a.santangelo@ymail.com.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santangelo
authors.affiliation: Dept of Physiology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, Msida, Malta; School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. Electronic address: giuseppe.digiovanni@um.edu.mt.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Di Giovanni
authors.affiliation: Dept of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Human Physiology Section "Giuseppe Pagano", Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: arcangelo.benigno@unipa.it.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Benigno
authors.affiliation: Human Behavior Laboratory, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. Electronic address: msm@hi.is.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Magnusson
authors.affiliation: Dept of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Human Physiology Section "Giuseppe Pagano", Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: giuseppe.crescimanno@unipa.it.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Crescimanno
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011921:Rats, Inbred WKY / Q000523:psychology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Anxiety; Central platform; DA/Han; Elevated plus maze; Male rat; T-pattern analysis; Wistar