Effects of stress or infection on rat behavior show robust reversals due to environmental disturbance

Background: The behavior of animals is intricately linked to the environment; a relationship that is often studied in laboratory conditions by using environmental perturbations to study biological mechanisms underlying the behavioral change. Methods: This study pertains to two such well-studied and...

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Main Authors: Abdulai-Saiku, Samira, Hegde, Akshaya, Vyas, Ajai, Mitra, Rupshi
Other Authors: School of Biological Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/86868
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45333
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-868682023-02-28T17:01:51Z Effects of stress or infection on rat behavior show robust reversals due to environmental disturbance Abdulai-Saiku, Samira Hegde, Akshaya Vyas, Ajai Mitra, Rupshi School of Biological Sciences Anxiety Fear Background: The behavior of animals is intricately linked to the environment; a relationship that is often studied in laboratory conditions by using environmental perturbations to study biological mechanisms underlying the behavioral change. Methods: This study pertains to two such well-studied and well-replicated perturbations, i.e., stress-induced anxiogenesis and Toxoplasma gondii -induced loss of innate fear. Here, we demonstrate that behavioral outcomes of these experimental manipulations are contingent upon the ambient quality of the wider environment where animal facilities are situated. Results: During late 2014 and early 2015, a building construction project started adjacent to our animal facility. During this phase, we observed that maternal separation stress caused anxiolysis, rather than historically observed anxiogenesis, in laboratory rats. We also found that Toxoplasma gondii infection caused an increase, rather than historically observed decrease, in innate aversion to predator odors in rats. Conclusion: These observations suggest that effects of stress and Toxoplasma gondii are dependent on variables in the environment that often go unreported in the published literature. MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore) Published version 2018-07-27T08:12:49Z 2019-12-06T16:30:35Z 2018-07-27T08:12:49Z 2019-12-06T16:30:35Z 2018 Journal Article Abdulai-Saiku, S., Hegde, A., Vyas, A., & Mitra, R. (2018). Effects of stress or infection on rat behavior show robust reversals due to environmental disturbance. F1000Research, 6, 2097-. 2046-1402 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/86868 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45333 10.12688/f1000research.13171.2 en F1000Research © 2018 Abdulai-Saiku S et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Data associated with the article are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Zero "No rights reserved" data waiver (CC0 1.0 Public domain dedication). 8 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Anxiety
Fear
spellingShingle Anxiety
Fear
Abdulai-Saiku, Samira
Hegde, Akshaya
Vyas, Ajai
Mitra, Rupshi
Effects of stress or infection on rat behavior show robust reversals due to environmental disturbance
description Background: The behavior of animals is intricately linked to the environment; a relationship that is often studied in laboratory conditions by using environmental perturbations to study biological mechanisms underlying the behavioral change. Methods: This study pertains to two such well-studied and well-replicated perturbations, i.e., stress-induced anxiogenesis and Toxoplasma gondii -induced loss of innate fear. Here, we demonstrate that behavioral outcomes of these experimental manipulations are contingent upon the ambient quality of the wider environment where animal facilities are situated. Results: During late 2014 and early 2015, a building construction project started adjacent to our animal facility. During this phase, we observed that maternal separation stress caused anxiolysis, rather than historically observed anxiogenesis, in laboratory rats. We also found that Toxoplasma gondii infection caused an increase, rather than historically observed decrease, in innate aversion to predator odors in rats. Conclusion: These observations suggest that effects of stress and Toxoplasma gondii are dependent on variables in the environment that often go unreported in the published literature.
author2 School of Biological Sciences
author_facet School of Biological Sciences
Abdulai-Saiku, Samira
Hegde, Akshaya
Vyas, Ajai
Mitra, Rupshi
format Article
author Abdulai-Saiku, Samira
Hegde, Akshaya
Vyas, Ajai
Mitra, Rupshi
author_sort Abdulai-Saiku, Samira
title Effects of stress or infection on rat behavior show robust reversals due to environmental disturbance
title_short Effects of stress or infection on rat behavior show robust reversals due to environmental disturbance
title_full Effects of stress or infection on rat behavior show robust reversals due to environmental disturbance
title_fullStr Effects of stress or infection on rat behavior show robust reversals due to environmental disturbance
title_full_unstemmed Effects of stress or infection on rat behavior show robust reversals due to environmental disturbance
title_sort effects of stress or infection on rat behavior show robust reversals due to environmental disturbance
publishDate 2018
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/86868
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45333
_version_ 1759856945493180416