Cognitive Performance in Rats Differing in Their Inborn Anxiety

There is profound evidence that cognitive processes and anxiety are interrelated. To learn more about this interaction, the authors tested rats bred for either high (HABs) or low (LABs) anxiety-related behavior in a modified hole board task. This task allows parallel investigation of various cogniti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral neuroscience 2002-06, Vol.116 (3), p.464-471
Main Authors: Ohl, Frauke, Roedel, Angelika, Storch, Corinna, Holsboer, Florian, Landgraf, Rainer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affectivity. Emotion
Animal
Animal behavior
Animal cognition
Animals
Anxiety
Anxiety - genetics
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition - physiology
Cognition. Intelligence
Cognitive Ability
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Male
Personality. Affectivity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Reaction Time - genetics
Reasoning. Problem solving
Rodents
Species Specificity
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Summary:There is profound evidence that cognitive processes and anxiety are interrelated. To learn more about this interaction, the authors tested rats bred for either high (HABs) or low (LABs) anxiety-related behavior in a modified hole board task. This task allows parallel investigation of various cognitive processes and possibly related behavioral dimensions, both under baseline conditions and during cognitively stressful situations. The authors provide evidence that the degree of anxiety is differentially associated with enhanced performance for distinct informational processes in rats. As HABs and LABs did not differ in their anxiety-related behavior after habituation, that is, in a familiar environment during appetitive learning, the authors conclude that anxiety behavior in naive HABs may be due to differential cognitive processing.
ISSN:0735-7044
1939-0084
DOI:10.1037/0735-7044.116.3.464