Background

Anger is one of the primary emotions that profoundly impacts our daily life. Although the neural basis of anger needs to be explored on high priority, the field has not sufficiently advanced, perhaps due to the lack of a suitable animal model.

New method

We fabricated arenas in which the hungry rat can see and smell food but can not consume it. These animals seemed hyperactive and we monitored the (a) motor activity to access food, (b) biting behaviour, (c) blood pressure, heart rate and nor-epinephrine (NE) in plasma, (d) 5-HT and its metabolite in CSF, (e) effect of diazepam, 5-HT agonist, and antagonist on the behaviour, and (f) expression of immediate early gene in discrete areas of the brain.

Results

The fasted animal frantically tries to acquire food. It engages in intense biting of the separator plate; the behaviour was considered as an expression of anger-like emotion. These behaviours were attenuated following pre-treatment with diazepam, fluoxetine (both ip) or 5-HT1A receptor agonist (icv), but potentiated by 5-HT1A antagonist (icv). Concomitantly, an increase in the blood pressure, heart rate and NE in plasma, but a decrease in 5-HT and 5-HIAA in the CSF was noted. The animals showed activation of neuronal c-Fos in different brain areas compared to fasted or refed controls.

Comparison with existing methods

A novel animal paradigm for assessment of anger.

Conclusions

The protocol enables us to generate and evaluate anger-like responses in rat and permits insights into the neurological basis of anger.

中文翻译：

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拒绝饥饿的食物：一种诱导和评估类似愤怒情绪的新颖范例。

背景

愤怒是深刻影响我们日常生活的主要情感之一。尽管需要高度重视愤怒的神经基础，但由于缺乏合适的动物模型，该领域的研究还不够深入。

新方法

我们制造了一个饥饿的老鼠可以看到并闻到食物但不能食用的竞技场。这些动物似乎活动过度，我们监测了（a）进食的运动能力，（b）咬人的行为，（c）血浆中的血压，心率和去甲肾上腺素（NE），（d）5-HT及其代谢物在脑脊液中，（e）地西epa，5-HT激动剂和拮抗剂对行为的影响，以及（f）在大脑的离散区域表达立即早期基因。

结果

禁食的动物疯狂地试图获取食物。它会强烈咬住隔板。该行为被认为是愤怒情绪的表达。用地西epa，氟西汀（腹膜内）或5-HT1A受体激动剂（icv）预处理后，这些行为减弱，但被5-HT1A拮抗剂（icv）增强。同时，血浆中的血压，心率和NE升高，但CSF中的5-HT和5-HIAA降低。与禁食或对照相比，动物在不同的大脑区域显示神经元c-Fos的激活。

与现有方法的比较

一种评估愤怒的新颖动物范式。

结论

该协议使我们能够在大鼠中生成和评估愤怒样反应，并允许深入了解愤怒的神经基础。