The Ontogeny of Anxiety-Like Behavior in Rats from Adolescence to Adulthood

In human beings, susceptibility to anxiety disorders can be relatively high during adolescence. Understanding the ontogeny of anxiety-like behavior in laboratory rodents has implications for developing anxiolytic drugs that are suitable for this age group. Given the dearth of information about adolescent rodents, this study examined the response of both male and female adolescent, late adolescent, young adult, and older adult rats to three tests of anxiety-like behavior: the emergence test (ET), open field (OF), and elevated plus-maze (EPM). The results showed that adolescent rats exhibited a higher anxiety-like response than adults on each test; the amount of locomotion in the OF and percentage of time spent on the open arms of the EPM increased across the age groups, while older adult rats made the fewest start box re-entries in the ET. These results support the hypothesis that adolescent rats have a more pronounced response to stressors than do adults. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 52: 731–739, 2010.