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Rat’s response to a novelty and increased complexity of the environment resulting from the introduction of movable vs. stationary objects in the free exploration test

Most animals, including rats, show a preference for more complex environments. This is demonstrated particularly well when complexity increases due to the addition of new elements to the environment. The aim of the study was to investigate the reaction to novelty, understood as a change in environme...

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Autores principales: Chrzanowska, Anna, Modlinska, Klaudia, Goncikowska, Katarzyna, Pisula, Wojciech
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9767355/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36538520
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279006
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author Chrzanowska, Anna
Modlinska, Klaudia
Goncikowska, Katarzyna
Pisula, Wojciech
author_facet Chrzanowska, Anna
Modlinska, Klaudia
Goncikowska, Katarzyna
Pisula, Wojciech
author_sort Chrzanowska, Anna
collection PubMed
description Most animals, including rats, show a preference for more complex environments. This is demonstrated particularly well when complexity increases due to the addition of new elements to the environment. The aim of the study was to investigate the reaction to novelty, understood as a change in environmental properties that involve both changes in complexity and controllability. Controllability may allow for dealing with challenges of an environment of low predictability in a way that the animal’s own activity reduces the uncertainty of environmental events. In our study, the animals underwent a spontaneous exploration test in low-stress conditions. After a period of habituation to the experimental arena, additional stationary (increased complexity) and/or movable (increased complexity and controllability) tunnels were introduced, and the reaction of the rats to the novel objects was measured. The results of the study confirmed that an increase in the complexity of the environment through the addition of objects triggers a more intensive exploratory activity in rats. However, an increased spatial complexity combined with the movability of the novel objects seems to result in increased caution towards the novelty after an initial inspection of the changed objects. It suggests that the complexity of the novelty may trigger both neophilia and neophobia depending on the level of the predictability of the novel environment and that the movability of newly introduced objects is not independent of other parameters of the environment.
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spelling pubmed-97673552022-12-21 Rat’s response to a novelty and increased complexity of the environment resulting from the introduction of movable vs. stationary objects in the free exploration test Chrzanowska, Anna Modlinska, Klaudia Goncikowska, Katarzyna Pisula, Wojciech PLoS One Research Article Most animals, including rats, show a preference for more complex environments. This is demonstrated particularly well when complexity increases due to the addition of new elements to the environment. The aim of the study was to investigate the reaction to novelty, understood as a change in environmental properties that involve both changes in complexity and controllability. Controllability may allow for dealing with challenges of an environment of low predictability in a way that the animal’s own activity reduces the uncertainty of environmental events. In our study, the animals underwent a spontaneous exploration test in low-stress conditions. After a period of habituation to the experimental arena, additional stationary (increased complexity) and/or movable (increased complexity and controllability) tunnels were introduced, and the reaction of the rats to the novel objects was measured. The results of the study confirmed that an increase in the complexity of the environment through the addition of objects triggers a more intensive exploratory activity in rats. However, an increased spatial complexity combined with the movability of the novel objects seems to result in increased caution towards the novelty after an initial inspection of the changed objects. It suggests that the complexity of the novelty may trigger both neophilia and neophobia depending on the level of the predictability of the novel environment and that the movability of newly introduced objects is not independent of other parameters of the environment. Public Library of Science 2022-12-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9767355/ /pubmed/36538520 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279006 Text en © 2022 Chrzanowska et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Chrzanowska, Anna
Modlinska, Klaudia
Goncikowska, Katarzyna
Pisula, Wojciech
Rat’s response to a novelty and increased complexity of the environment resulting from the introduction of movable vs. stationary objects in the free exploration test
title Rat’s response to a novelty and increased complexity of the environment resulting from the introduction of movable vs. stationary objects in the free exploration test
title_full Rat’s response to a novelty and increased complexity of the environment resulting from the introduction of movable vs. stationary objects in the free exploration test
title_fullStr Rat’s response to a novelty and increased complexity of the environment resulting from the introduction of movable vs. stationary objects in the free exploration test
title_full_unstemmed Rat’s response to a novelty and increased complexity of the environment resulting from the introduction of movable vs. stationary objects in the free exploration test
title_short Rat’s response to a novelty and increased complexity of the environment resulting from the introduction of movable vs. stationary objects in the free exploration test
title_sort rat’s response to a novelty and increased complexity of the environment resulting from the introduction of movable vs. stationary objects in the free exploration test
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9767355/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36538520
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279006
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