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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...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2022
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9767355 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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