Sex Differences in Foraging Rats to Naturalistic Aerial Predator Stimuli
Summary: Rodents in the wild are under nearly constant threat of aerial predation and thus have evolved adaptive innate defensive behaviors, such as freezing or fleeing, in response to a perceived looming threat. Here we employed an ethologically relevant paradigm to study innate fear of aerial pred...
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2019-06-01
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Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004219301932 |
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doaj-562c163e68fe4d77961605ec3a9a86612020-11-24T21:34:38ZengElsevieriScience2589-00422019-06-0116442452Sex Differences in Foraging Rats to Naturalistic Aerial Predator StimuliPeter R. Zambetti0Bryan P. Schuessler1Jeansok J. Kim2Department of Psychology, Guthrie Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USADepartment of Psychology, Guthrie Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USADepartment of Psychology, Guthrie Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Program in Neuroscience, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Corresponding authorSummary: Rodents in the wild are under nearly constant threat of aerial predation and thus have evolved adaptive innate defensive behaviors, such as freezing or fleeing, in response to a perceived looming threat. Here we employed an ethologically relevant paradigm to study innate fear of aerial predators in male and female rats during a goal-oriented task. Rats foraging for food in a large arena encountered either a 2D or 3D looming stimulus, to which they instinctively fled back to a safe nest. When facing a direct aerial threat, female rats exhibited a greater fear response than males and this divergence maintained when exposed to the environment on subsequent days with no predator interaction, suggesting stronger contextual fear in female rats. These results may have relevance toward exploring neurobiological mechanisms associated with higher diagnosis rates of fear and anxiety-related disorders in women as compared with men. : Biological Sciences; Animals; Ethology Subject Areas: Biological Sciences, Animals, Ethologyhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004219301932 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Peter R. Zambetti Bryan P. Schuessler Jeansok J. Kim |
spellingShingle |
Peter R. Zambetti Bryan P. Schuessler Jeansok J. Kim Sex Differences in Foraging Rats to Naturalistic Aerial Predator Stimuli iScience |
author_facet |
Peter R. Zambetti Bryan P. Schuessler Jeansok J. Kim |
author_sort |
Peter R. Zambetti |
title |
Sex Differences in Foraging Rats to Naturalistic Aerial Predator Stimuli |
title_short |
Sex Differences in Foraging Rats to Naturalistic Aerial Predator Stimuli |
title_full |
Sex Differences in Foraging Rats to Naturalistic Aerial Predator Stimuli |
title_fullStr |
Sex Differences in Foraging Rats to Naturalistic Aerial Predator Stimuli |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sex Differences in Foraging Rats to Naturalistic Aerial Predator Stimuli |
title_sort |
sex differences in foraging rats to naturalistic aerial predator stimuli |
publisher |
Elsevier |
series |
iScience |
issn |
2589-0042 |
publishDate |
2019-06-01 |
description |
Summary: Rodents in the wild are under nearly constant threat of aerial predation and thus have evolved adaptive innate defensive behaviors, such as freezing or fleeing, in response to a perceived looming threat. Here we employed an ethologically relevant paradigm to study innate fear of aerial predators in male and female rats during a goal-oriented task. Rats foraging for food in a large arena encountered either a 2D or 3D looming stimulus, to which they instinctively fled back to a safe nest. When facing a direct aerial threat, female rats exhibited a greater fear response than males and this divergence maintained when exposed to the environment on subsequent days with no predator interaction, suggesting stronger contextual fear in female rats. These results may have relevance toward exploring neurobiological mechanisms associated with higher diagnosis rates of fear and anxiety-related disorders in women as compared with men. : Biological Sciences; Animals; Ethology Subject Areas: Biological Sciences, Animals, Ethology |
url |
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004219301932 |
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