PMID- 12676379
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20030702
LR  - 20190614
IS  - 0006-8993 (Print)
IS  - 0006-8993 (Linking)
VI  - 969
IP  - 1-2
DP  - 2003 Apr 18
TI  - Excitotoxic lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex attenuate fear responses in 
      the elevated-plus maze, social interaction and shock probe burying tests.
PG  - 183-94
AB  - Previous research investigating the effects of medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) 
      lesions on fear- and anxiety-related behavior has yielded an inconsistent body of 
      findings. Behavioral studies have reported increases, decreases, and no effect on 
      anxiety. In addition, many studies are complicated by the use of lesioning 
      techniques that destroy fibers of passage, and the use of conditioned fear tests, 
      which may introduce the confounding effects of learning and memory. Therefore, 
      the present study examined the effects of ibotenic acid lesions of the MPFC 
      (including prelimbic, infralimbic and anterior cingulate) on three wide-ranging 
      and well-validated behavioral assays of anxiety: the elevated plus maze (EPM), 
      social interaction (SI) and the shock-probe tests (SP). In the EPM test, lesioned 
      rats showed a significantly higher percentage of open arm entries and open arm 
      time than controls. In a version of the SI test sensitive to anxiolytic effects, 
      lesioned rats were found to spend a significantly greater amount of time in 
      active interaction with a conspecific; while another version of the SI test 
      sensitive to anxiogenic effects did not show any differences between lesioned and 
      non-lesioned controls. In the SP test, lesioned rats exhibited significantly 
      lower rates of burying. In contrast, retention of shock probe avoidance was not 
      affected. No effects of lesions on measures of locomotor activity or shock 
      reactivity were found. The concordant anxiolytic-like effects found in the three 
      behavioral assays strongly suggests a general reduction in fear responsiveness in 
      MPFC lesioned rats.
FAU - Shah, Akeel A
AU  - Shah AA
AD  - Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, P217 Biological Sciences 
      Building, AB, T6H 2E9, Edmonton, Canada.
FAU - Treit, Dallas
AU  - Treit D
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Brain Res
JT  - Brain research
JID - 0045503
RN  - 0 (Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists)
RN  - 2552-55-8 (Ibotenic Acid)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Anxiety/*physiopathology
MH  - Escape Reaction/physiology
MH  - Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists/pharmacology
MH  - Fear/*physiology
MH  - Ibotenic Acid/pharmacology
MH  - Male
MH  - Maze Learning/physiology
MH  - Prefrontal Cortex/injuries/*physiopathology
MH  - Rats
MH  - Rats, Sprague-Dawley
MH  - Social Behavior
EDAT- 2003/04/05 05:00
MHDA- 2003/07/03 05:00
CRDT- 2003/04/05 05:00
PHST- 2003/04/05 05:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2003/07/03 05:00 [medline]
PHST- 2003/04/05 05:00 [entrez]
AID - S0006899303022996 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/s0006-8993(03)02299-6 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Brain Res. 2003 Apr 18;969(1-2):183-94. doi: 10.1016/s0006-8993(03)02299-6.