title: A modified beam-walking apparatus for assessment of anxiety in a rodent model of blast traumatic brain injury.
abstract: The elevated plus maze (EPM) is used to assess anxiety in rodents. Beam-walking tasks are used to assess vestibulomotor function. Brain injury in rodents can disrupt performance on both of these tasks. Developing novel paradigms that integrate tasks like these can reduce the need for multiple tests when attempting to assess multiple behaviors in the same animal. Using adult male rats, we evaluated the use of a modified beam-walking (MBW) apparatus as a surrogate indicator for anxiety. We used a model of blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI). A total of 39 rats were assessed before and at 3, 6, 24, 72, and 168h either post- bTBI (n=33) or no-injury (n=6) using both EPM and MBW. A novel anxiety index was calculated that encompassed peeks and re-emergences on MBW. The proposed MBW anxiety index was compared with the standard anxiety index calculated from exploration into different sections of EPM. Post- bTBI, rats had an increased anxiety index when measured using EPM. Similarly, they peeked or fully emerged less out of the safe box on MBW. It was found that this novel MBW anxiety index captured similar aspects of behavior when compared to the standard anxiety index obtained from EPM. Further, these effects were dissociated from the effects of bTBI on motor function simultaneously measured on MBW. Over the course of 168h post-bTBI, rats gradually recovered on both EPM and MBW. The MBW apparatus succeeded at capturing and dissociating two separate facets of rat behavior, motor function and anxiety, simultaneously.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States; Medical School, Twin Cities Campus, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States; Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
authors.forename: Brian M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Sweis
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
authors.forename: Salam P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Bachour
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
authors.forename: Julia A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Brekke
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
authors.forename: Jonathan C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Gewirtz
authors.affiliation: Road Traffic Injury Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran; Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Homayoun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sadeghi-Bazargani
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States; Medical School, Twin Cities Campus, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hevesi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States; Department of Neurosurgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States. Electronic address: divani@umn.edu.
authors.forename: Afshin A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Divani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D035841:Behavioral Research / Q000295:instrumentation*; D001753:Blast Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
keywords: Anxiety; Blast traumatic brain injury; Elevated plus maze; Modified beam-walking; Motor; Rats