ArticlePharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior2011
Use of the light-dark box to compare the anxiety-related behavior of virgin and postpartum female rats.
Article in Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
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- A Scoping Review of Neurotoxic and Behavioral Outcomes Following Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) Exposure in Post-Weaned Rodents.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Sex-specific attenuation of constant light-induced memory impairment and Clock gene expression in brain in hepatic Npas2 knockout mice.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Parasite-mediated alteration of behaviour and biomolecular dynamics in a mouse model.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
- Long-term impacts of prenatal maternal immune activation and postnatal maternal separation on maternal behavior in adult female rats: Relevance to postpartum mental disorders.Behavioural brain research · 2024Article
- Memory deficits and hippocampal cytokine expression in a rat model of ADHD.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- miRNA-132/212 Deficiency Disrupts Selective Corticosterone Modulation of Dorsal vs. Ventral Hippocampal Metaplasticity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Resveratrol ameliorates the behavioural and molecular changes in rats exposed to uninephrectomy: role of hippocampal SIRT1, BDNF and AChE.Journal of physiology and biochemistry · 2023Article
- Assessing Orofacial Pain Behaviors in Animal Models: A Review.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Ethanol exposure alters Alzheimer's-related pathology, behavior, and metabolism in APP/PS1 mice.Neurobiology of disease · 2023Article
- Effects of NADPH Oxidase Isoform-2 (NOX2) Inhibition on Behavioral Responses and Neuroinflammation in a Mouse Model of Neuropathic Pain.Biomedicines · 2023Article
- Sex differences in anxiety and depression: circuits and mechanisms.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2021Review
- Genetic background influences the effect of thirdhand smoke exposure on anxiety and memory in Collaborative Cross mice.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- GABA in the medial prefrontal cortex regulates anxiety-like behavior during the postpartum period.Behavioural brain research · 2021Article
- Postpartum State, but Not Maternal Caregiving or Level of Anxiety, Increases Medial Prefrontal Cortex GADFrontiers in global women's health · 2021Article
- Maternal Experience Does Not Predict Fear Extinction and Anxiety-Like Behaviour in Primiparous Rats Post-weaning.Frontiers in global women's health · 2021Article
- Supplementation with CombinedMicroorganisms · 2020Article
- To Approach or Avoid: An Introductory Overview of the Study of Anxiety Using Rodent Assays.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Review
- Increased depression-related behavior during the postpartum period in inbred BALB/c and C57BL/6 strains.Molecular brain · 2019Article
- Podoplanin Gene Disruption in Mice PromotesFrontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Postpartum female rodents are less anxious than diestrous virgins and this difference contributes to dams' ability to adequately care for pups and defend the nest. Low postpartum anxiety has been observed in many behavioral paradigms but the results of previous studies using the light-dark box have been inconsistent. We here reexamined the usefulness of the light-dark box to assess differences between postpartum and diestrous virgin female rats in their anxiety-related behavior. We found a significant effect of reproductive state, such that dams spent more time in the light chamber than did diestrous virgins. This difference required recent physical contact with pups because a four-hour separation from pups reduced dams' time spent in the light chamber by half, similar to what we previously found for litter-separated dams tested in an elevated plus maze. We then examined if dams' low-anxiety behavior in the light-dark box depends on high GABA(A) receptor activity by inhibiting the receptor at different binding sites using (+)-Bicuculline to target the GABA site, FG-7142 to target the benzodiazepine site, and pentylenetetrazol to target the picrotoxin site. Only pentylenetetrazol was consistently anxiogenic in dams, while having little effect in diestrous virgins. Thus, the light-dark box can be a useful paradigm to study differences between postpartum and diestrous virgin female rats in their anxiety-related behaviors, and this difference is influenced by dams' recent contact with pups and GABA(A) receptor neurotransmission particularly affected by activity at the picrotoxin site.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.