Can the Hole–Board Test Predict a Rat’s Exploratory Behavior in a Free-Exploration Test?

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Since the introduction of the hole–board test, its validity and applicability have been repeatedly re-examined. The hole–board protocol remains one of the standard procedures applied in psychopharmacology and behavioral studies. Some authors advocate the use of the hole–board procedure in studies on various aspects of behavior regulation, such as exploration and anxiety, habituation to a novel environment, spatial learning and memory (working and reference memory), spatial pattern learning, and food search strategies. In this study, we focused on rats’ activity in the hole–board test that we considered to be a type of exploratory activity. Based on our results and our previous studies of rats’ exploratory behavior in the free-exploration box, we suggest that the hole–board apparatus might not be the best tool for measuring exploratory behavior in laboratory rodents. ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the rat activity in a hole–board setting that we considered a type of exploratory behavior. The general hypothesis is based on the claim that a motivational mechanism is central to both the response to novelty in a highly familiarized environment and the activity in the hole–board apparatus. Our sample consisted of 80 experimentally naive Lister Hooded rats. All rats were tested in the hole–board apparatus. Twenty individuals with the highest hole-board scores and twenty subjects with the lowest hole–board scores subsequently underwent an established free-exploration test. In our study, the scores obtained in the hole–board test had little predictive value for the rats’ activity in the free-exploration test. Based on our previous experience in studying exploratory behavior in the free-exploration test and the data presented in this paper, we suggest that the hole–board test is not an appropriate tool for measuring exploratory behavior in laboratory rodents.