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- Title
Examining the Effects of Exercise on Frustration-Induced Anxiety-Like Behavior in Rats.
- Authors
Taylor, J. Eason; Ficzere, Bailee; Louis, Jonathan St.; Schoenfeld, Timothy J.
- Abstract
Frustration is an emotional event arising from decreases in expected reward following motivated behavior and is associated with stress and anxiety in humans, albeit rarely studied in rodents. Rodent studies have shown that anxiety-like behavior is a potential side effect of frustration, although the mechanisms and potential preventative actions for frustration are unknown. To study anxiety interventions in rodents, running wheels are used to consistently decrease anxiety-like behavior. However, wheel running has not been used to study its effects on frustration-induced anxious behavior. Thus, we modeled frustration in both control and running rats, and predicted that running would buffer anxiogenic effects of frustration. Long-Evans rats (N = 16) were randomly assigned to either control or exercise conditions. All rats were trained on a progressive variable ratio (VR) lever pressing schedule up to VR20. After reaching criterion, rats went through a frustration trial, during which no reward was given. After both VR20 and frustration trials, corticosterone was measured from tail blood, and anxiety-like behavior was analyzed in an open field. Last, hippocampal tissue was analyzed for dendritic spine density. Control rats had increased anxiety-like behavior, t(7) = 4.84, p = .002, and corticosterone levels, t(8) = 3.31, p = .011, following induced-frustration. However, running rats showed no such increases, t(7) = -0.24, p = .82, and had higher spine density throughout the hippocampus, t(4) = -8.21, p = .001. The present findings suggest exercise as a preventative intervention against the maladaptive effects of frustration on physiology and anxious behavior.
- Subjects
DENDRITIC spines; FRUSTRATION; ANXIETY; ANIMAL behavior; LABORATORY rats; RUNNING; HIPPOCAMPUS (Brain); CORTICOSTERONE
- Publication
Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 2019, Vol 24, Issue 4, p210
- ISSN
2164-8204
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.24839/2325-7342.JN24.4.210