| dc.description.abstract | The accuracy of anxiety studies using live animal trials is constantly challenged by the difficulty to create a controllable and yet easily triggered fear response in the test subjects. We proposed the predator odour 2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT) as a feasible stimulus to elicit anxiety in mice and investigated its effect.
To examine if the fear response was present we used 10% and 100% TMT solutions and several control odours which included citronella as a neutral odour, MHA as an irritating odour, and a perfume as a neutral odour that the mice were acclimated to before the trial. The mice were separately placed in an open field for six-minute time intervals with each odour. In the first half of the six minutes, a hiding box was provided. We analyzed the recordings to find fear-related behaviour: moving away from the odour, hiding, freezing and burying. Additionally, we looked for a change in levels of movement, body position and grooming behaviour. | en_US |
