ArticleBehavioural brain research2015
Behavioral and pharmacological investigation of anxiety and maternal responsiveness of postpartum female rats in a pup elevated plus maze.
Article in Behavioural brain research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Under or Absent Reporting of Light Stimuli in Testing of Anxiety-Like Behaviors in Rodents: The Need for Standardization.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Distal pup cues attenuate defensive reactivity and fear-potentiated startle magnitude in postpartum rats without altering sensorimotor gating.Behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Neural correlates of adversity-overcoming pup rescue behavior in female mice.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Does lateral habenula mediate effects of gestational stress on rat maternal behavior?Brain behavior and immunity integrative · 2025Article
- Roadmap for maternal behavior research in domestic dogs: lessons from decades of laboratory rodent work.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Review
- 8-OH-DPAT enhances dopamine DJournal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2022Article
- Lateral habenula neurocircuits mediate the maternal disruptive effect of maternal stress: A hypothesis.Zoological research · 2022Review
- GABA in the medial prefrontal cortex regulates anxiety-like behavior during the postpartum period.Behavioural brain research · 2021Article
- The parental brain and behavior: A target for endocrine disruption.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2019Review
- 5-HTPharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2019Article
- Serotonin and motherhood: From molecules to mood.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2019Review
- Does Age Interfere With Gadolinium Toxicity and Presence in Brain and Bone Tissues?: A Comparative Gadoterate Versus Gadodiamide Study in Juvenile and Adult Rats.Investigative radiology · 2019Article
- Behavioral mechanisms underlying the maternal disruptive effect of serotonin 5-HTJournal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2018Article
- Testing Animal Anxiety in Rats: Effects of Open Arm Ledges and Closed Arm Wall Transparency in Elevated Plus Maze Test.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2018Article
- ModifiedEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2018Article
- The DrosophilaCognitive development · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The present study investigated the validity of a novel pup-based repeated elevated plus maze task to detect reduced anxiety and increased maternal responsiveness in postpartum female rats and explored the roles of dopamine D2, serotonin transporter and GABA/benzodiazepine receptors in the mediation of these processes. Sprague-Dawley postpartum or nulliparous female rats were tested 4 times every other day on postpartum days 4, 6 and 8 in an elevated plus maze with 4 pups or 4 pup-size erasers placed on each end of the two open arms. When tested with erasers, untreated postpartum mother rats entered the open arms proportionally more than nulliparous rats. They also tended to spend more time in the open arms, indicating reduced anxiety. When tested with pups, postpartum rats retrieved pups into the closed arms, entered the open arms and closed arms more and had a higher moving speed than nulliparous rats, indicating increased maternal responsiveness. Both haloperidol (0.1 or 0.2 mg/kg, sc) and fluoxetine (5 or 10 mg/kg, ip) dose- and time-dependently decreased the percentage of time spent in the open arms and speed, but did not affect the percentage of open arm entries. Diazepam (1.0 or 2.0 mg/kg, ip) did not affect pup retrieval, open arm time/entry in lactating rats. Thus, the percentage of open arm entries appears to be the most sensitive measure of anxiety in postpartum female rats, while speed could be used to index maternal responsiveness to pups, which are likely mediated by the dopamine D2 and serotonin transporter systems.
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Registered trials
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.