Abstract
This experiment examined whether chronic stress disrupts novelty-seeking behavior under conditions that impair spatial memory. Rats were restrained for 6 h per day for 21 days, then tested in either a traditional spatial recognition Y-maze that requires extra-maze spatial cues to navigate or a version with salient intra-maze cues in addition to the extra-maze spatial cues. As previously shown, chronic restraint stress impaired performance on the spatial version of the Y-maze. However, chronically stressed rats performed well in the intra-maze cue version. The results indicate that the deficits in Y-maze performance following chronic stress are not attributed to neophobia, but likely reflect neurochemical and/or neurobiological changes underlying spatial memory ability.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 151-154 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Stress |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2005 |
Keywords
- Novelty-seeking
- Object recognition
- Restraint stress
- Spatial memory
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physiology
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
- Endocrine and Autonomic Systems
- Psychiatry and Mental health
- Behavioral Neuroscience