Is it the best or a very preliminary approach to assess this activity. What is the usefulness of Y-maze, the water maze and other behavioural tests. Do they directly correlate to neuronal activity in brain or it is just a measure of learning behaviour of the animal. Do this tests affect long term memory or they are just having effects on the short term memory of the animal? What are the in vitro tests which should be preformed along with this tests for assessing this activity?
These are all behavioral studies. What are the newer expansions which can be done in this area of research?
You should start that In certain conditions experimental animals can not express themsevies directly as human. The elevated plus-maze model of anxity for rodents (mice and rats, according to size of model) is considered a test for both spontenous motor activity (indirect measure) and for phobia measure (anxity, direct ), the results depends on time of experiment, usually should be the first five minutes. Otherwise, the findings will reflect another condition (adaption). There is another test that can be used in parallel for exploratory behaviour (spontenous motor activity and anxiolytic effect) namely is open field of motor activity for rodents (mice and rats according to size of model) but it is not elevated. Thus you can measure central and peripheral movements for short time (5-10 min). Dark/light compartment is also another model for exploratory behaviour. With regard to plus-maze, if you test a diazepam as a reference drug (well know anti-anxity ), you will have a great results of anxiolytic effect both in open and closed arms (time spent on arms and number of arm entries) and then compare with test drug for anxilytic like effect. The Y-maze is considered a test for memory and motor activity more than for anxiolytic study. It is mainly used to train animal to which direction (right or left goes to find what he trained looking for with calculation of mistakes or thinking time). In this case, radial maze is more acceptable for memory since Y maze is a preliminary screening test and a simple test whie radial maze is more complicated,
With regard to water maze, it is a test for example screening of depression effect e.g., screening antidepressants drugs or for memory loss such as for drugs of Alzhiemer's or other diseases related to memory function.
Sure, any biochemical changes in the brain reflects behavioural changes depends on the region and/or neurotransmitter type, certain psychaitric disorders can only be measured by behavioural tests but the question is that these tests are not selective for the diseases, it is a complex. As far as I know, there is no selective test for certain disorder, you should always look for another test to confirm the action of a drug.
Does this reflects active or passive avoidance paradigm. What exactly is the difference between the two paradigms?
Some would argue that the elevated O-maze developed by the late John Shepherd, a circular runway with open and closed sections, is a better system on which to test rat anxiety than is the plus maze, getting around some of the technical issues with the latter. But read more:
Behavioural and pharmacological characterisation of the elevated "zero-maze" as an animal model of anxiety.
Shepherd JK, Grewal SS, Fletcher A, Bill DJ, Dourish CT.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1994 Sep;116(1):56-64.
Does the two compartment shuttle box also work on the same mechanisms as EPM or it is based on a different approach - the active or passive avoidance? Can this be used as a substitute for EPM?
Water maze is better or equivalent to EPM. What is the difference which the two might generate as far as anxiety is concerned?
Water maze is completely different from EPM regarding aim and function. Water maze is designated to usually for memory loss and depression, however, EPM is mainly designated to produce phobia or fear due to height and open arms and to measure anxiety index directly and indirectly to measure motor activity. As far as concering anxiety in rodents the elevated plus maze model is the best and more valid than other models.
All above discussion have described various models for evaluation of anxiolytic activity but if you want to confirm anxiolytic activity at molecular level then you can go for some biomarkers.
Ex.: It is reported that during anxiety there is excess release of steroids in our body. So according to some authors, by performing Dexamethosone test or by directly measuring the level of steroids (Glucocorticoids) in serum you can get the idea about anxiolytic effect of your drug.
In short, along with all behavioral models (mentioned above) if possible measure the steroid level or such biomarkers to improve the evaluation techniques for newer anxiolytic agent...
@Tejas Ganatra. I would highly appreciate if you can provide me the references to this effect. This can provide a new direction to this study. Thanks
I would like to suggest two references, which are as follow:
1. Level of cortisol is elevated in Anxiety (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17650276)
2. Determination of plasma Cortisol is new & true reflecter of Anxiety. (Kulkarni SK, "Handbook of experimental Pharmacology", 3rd edition; Experiment no.: 4.13; Page no.: 135; Line no. 8-9 in under the heading of Principle, Vallabh Prakashan)
Can you help me regarding this
Can anxiety increase open arm time, open arm head dipping, open arm initial heading errors and central zone entries? and what is risk assessment in Epm? And how to calculate?
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