Enhancement of the acoustic startle reflex by an alarm pheromone in male rats
Enhancement of the acoustic startle reflex by an alarm pheromone in male rats
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DOI：
10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.10.021
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发表时间：
2008-02-27
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Mori, Yuji
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Inagaki, Hideaki;Kiyokawa, Yasushi;Mori, Yuji
最近，我们报道了一个报警信息素释放从肛周区域的雄性大鼠加重应激诱导的体温过高，增加受体雄性大鼠的防御和风险评估行为。基于这些结果，我们假设警报信息素的主要作用是增加焦虑;然而，仍然没有明确的证据证明这种信息素的作用。因此，我们通过评估警报信息素对声音惊吓反射（ASR）的影响来研究这个问题，这是研究大鼠焦虑等负面情绪的有用指标。报警信息素增强了ASR为105分贝的听觉刺激，但不为90和120分贝，当这三个强度的声音被随机使用。当重复使用这三种强度中的一种时，获得了相同的结果。此外，用地西泮（i. p.）在0.7和2.0 mg/kg剂量下，抑制了信息素受体的ASR，而较低剂量（0.2 mg/kg）略微减弱了信息素的作用，而对照注射（载体）没有作用。这些结果表明，报警信息素通过增加受体大鼠的焦虑来增强ASR，这表明报警信息素的主要作用是增加焦虑水平。(C)2007年爱思唯尔公司All rights reserved.
Recently, we reported that an alarm pheromone released from the perianal region of male rats aggravated stress-induced hyperthermia and increased defensive and risk assessment behaviors in recipient male rats. Based on these results, we hypothesized that the primary effect of the alarm pheromone is to increase anxiety; however, there is still no clear evidence for this pheromone effect. Therefore, we examined this issue by assessing the effect of the alarm pheromone on the acoustic startle reflex (ASR), which is a useful index for studying negative emotions such as anxiety in rats. The alarm pheromone enhanced the ASR for 105-dB auditory stimuli, but not for those of 90 and 120 dB, when these three intensities of sound were used randomly. The same results were obtained when one of these three intensities was used repeatedly. In addition, pretreatment with diazepam (i.p.) at doses of 0.7 and 2.0 mg/kg suppressed the ASR of the pheromone recipients, whereas the lower dose (0.2 mg/ka) slightly attenuated the pheromone effect and the control injection (vehicle) had no effect. These results indicate that the alarm pheromone enhances the ASR by increasing anxiety in recipient rats, suggesting that the primary effect of the alarm pheromone is to increase the anxiety level. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.