Acute Restraint Stress Alters Food-Foraging Behavior in Rats: Taking the Easier Way While Suffered.

Acute Restraint Stress Alters Food-Foraging Behavior in Rats: Taking the Easier Way While Suffered. Brain Res Bull. 2019 Apr 26;: Authors: Bo-Xuan T, Wang LF, Zhong XL, Zhao-Lan H, Cao WY, Cui YH, Li SJ, Zou GJ, Liu Y, Zhou SF, Zhang WJ, Jing-Zhi S, Yan XX, Li F, Li CQ Abstract Stress can influence decision-making in humans from many cognitive perspectives, while the underlying neurobiological mechanism remains incompletely understood. Food-foraging is a rodent behavior involving strategic possessing of nutritional supply in social context; experimental model of this behavior could help explore the effect of stress on decision-making and the brain mechanism thereof. In the present study, the influence of stress on food-foraging behavior was assessed in rats using an open field choosing paradigm wherein food collection (standard food or sweet food) were associated with social competition (with or without a rat in the cage). Acute restraint stress (ARS) was induced by placing the rat in a plastic restrainer for 2 hours before food-foraging behavioral tests, with the effect of stress also determined biochemically and immunohistochemically. Restraint stressed rats showed anxiety-like behavior and elevation of serum corticosterone (CORT) and epinephrine (EPI) relative to controls. Both restraint and control animals preferred sugared food. However, the former group tended to forage food from a cage not occupied by a conspecific rat, wherea...
Source: Brain Research Bulletin - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Brain Res Bull Source Type: research