ArticleJournal of neuroscience methods2018
PLDT (planarian light/dark test): an invertebrate assay to quantify defensive responding and study anxiety-like effects.
Article in Journal of neuroscience methods, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Xylazine, veterinary anesthetic and recreational drug adulterant, reduces cephalic regeneration and alters defensive responding in planarians.Neurotoxicology · 2026Article
- Within- and Between-Subject Analyses of the Effects of Chronic Xylazine on Negative Phototaxis in Two Planarian Species.Biomolecules · 2025Article
- Schild Analysis of the Interaction between Parthenolide and Cocaine Suggests an Allosteric Relationship for Their Effects on Planarian Motility.Biomolecules · 2024Article
- Mechanisms of anti-predator behavior in the great ramshorn snail (Planorbarius corneus).PloS one · 2024Article
- Pharmacological validation of an attention bias test for conventional broiler chickens.PloS one · 2024Article
- Assessing the Welfare of Captive Group-Housed Cockroaches,Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Article
- Ets-1 transcription factor regulates glial cell regeneration and function in planarians.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2023Article
- Energy drink produces aversive effects in planarians.Physiology & behavior · 2022Article
- Nicotine-induced C-shape movements in planarians are reduced by antinociceptive drugs: Implications for pain in planarian paroxysm etiology?Brain research · 2022Article
- Planarian nociception: Lessons from a scrunching flatworm.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2022Review
- FG 7142: is this validated tool to study anxiety now forgotten?Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2020Article
- Predator odor produces anxiety-like behavioral phenotype in planarians that is counteracted by fluoxetine.Physiology & behavior · 2019Article
- Mu Opioid Receptor Agonist DAMGO Produces Place Conditioning, Abstinence-induced Withdrawal, and Naltrexone-Dependent Locomotor Activation in Planarians.Neuroscience · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPlanarians, like rodents, instinctively spend more time in dark versus light environments when given a choice. This behavioral phenomenon is called negative phototaxis, which may reflect defensive responding related to an anxiety-like phenotype. NEW
methodWe propose a planarian light/dark test, designated PLDT, to predict anxiogenic- or anxiolytic-like effects. Experimentally, we placed a planarian at the midline of a Petri dish, containing test compound or water, that was split evenly into light and dark compartments and determined time spent in the light over 10min.
resultsA clinically-approved benzodiazepine agonist (clorazepate; 10μM) increased time spent in the light whereas an inverse benzodiazepine agonist (FG-7142; 1, 10μM) produced the opposite response. Fluoxetine (1μM) or ethanol (1%), as well as the 'bath salt' cathinone S-mephedrone (300μM), enhanced time spent in the light. Planarians exposed to predator (frog) odor spent more time in the dark. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING
methodsThe light/dark box (LDB) test in rodents is used to screen putative medications for possible anxiolytic and anxiogenic effects. Our results showing that time spent in the light by planarians is enhanced by common anxiety-relieving drugs (e.g. benzodiazepine agonist, ethanol, fluoxetine) and decreased by anxiogenic substances (e.g. predator odor, benzodiazepine inverse agonist) reveal directionally similar effects in the established (LDB) and new (PLDT) assays.
conclusionOur data identify the PLDT as a cost-effective, invertebrate assay for quantifying the effects of practically any water-soluble substance on defensive responding and for studying and teaching anxiety-like responses in a living organism.
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