Infusions of muscimol into the lateral septum do not reduce rats’ defensive behaviors toward a cat odor stimulus

•We tested the effects of local infusions of muscimol in two rat models of anxiety.•Muscimol into the lateral septum (LS) increased rats’ open arm activity.•The same infusions reduced rats’ head-out postures toward cat-odor collar.•However, this reduction was also present toward a control (cat-odor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience letters 2015-01, Vol.584, p.373-377
Main Authors: Chee, San-San A., Patel, Ronak, Menard, Janet L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Avoidance Learning - drug effects
Cat odor
Cats
Cues
Escape Reaction - drug effects
GABA-A Receptor Agonists - pharmacology
Infusions, Intraventricular
Lateral septum
Locomotion - drug effects
Male
Maze Learning - drug effects
Muscimol
Muscimol - pharmacology
Odorants
Plus-maze
Rat
Rats, Long-Evans
Septum of Brain - drug effects
Septum of Brain - physiology
Smell
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Summary:•We tested the effects of local infusions of muscimol in two rat models of anxiety.•Muscimol into the lateral septum (LS) increased rats’ open arm activity.•The same infusions reduced rats’ head-out postures toward cat-odor collar.•However, this reduction was also present toward a control (cat-odor free) collar.•The LS does not selectively regulate rats’ defensive responses to a cat odor cue. The lateral septum (LS) is implicated in behavioral defense. We tested whether bilateral infusions of the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol into the LS suppress rats’ defensive responses to cat odor. Rats received intra-LS infusions of either saline or muscimol (40ng/rat) and were exposed to either a piece of a cat collar that had been previously worn by a cat or to a control (cat odor free) collar. Rats exposed to the cat odor collar displayed more head-out postures, while intra-LS application of muscimol reduced the number of head-out postures. However, this reduction was also present in rats exposed to a control (cat odor free) collar. This latter finding suggests that despite its involvement in other defensive behaviors (e.g., open arm avoidance in the elevated plus maze), the LS does not selectively regulate rats’ receptor defensive responding to the olfactory cues present in our cat odor stimulus.
ISSN:0304-3940
1872-7972
DOI:10.1016/j.neulet.2014.11.005