Post-Weaning Two Weeks’ Social Isolation Stress Causing Anxiety-Like Behavior, Locomotion, and Cognition Impairment in Rats
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Date
2021-06-30
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Brieflands
Abstract
Introduction: Social and psychological stressors are associated with cognitive impairment and anxiety. This study aimed to determine the effect of two weeks’ socially-isolated post-weaning rats on their learning, memory, locomotion, and anxiety-related behavior.Materials and Methods: Young male and female Wistar rats (21 days old), separated from different mothers (with no relationship), were divided into 4 groups: groups 1 and 2 comprised colonies of six male and six female rats in separate cages, lived for 2 weeks; groups 3 and 4 comprised stressed males and females housed individually in separated opaque cages (one rat lived alone in each cage for 2 weeks) in the same room. Then, we evaluated their passive avoidance and spatial memories, anxiety-like behaviors, and motor activity. The obtained data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc test. P values less than 0.05 were considered significant between all the test groups.Results: Both avoidance and spatial memories were impaired in stressed (single lived) male and female rats significantly (P