| dc.description.abstract | In the current thesis we wanted to study the effect of synthetic TMT, similar to
the TMT found naturally in fox faeces, on fear response in mice. Several studies have
previously suggested them to have a good ability to induce fear in rodents, especially in
rats. We wanted to see if these studies were reliable anxiety stimulators, also in mice.
For the experiment we used five different odours: distilled water as a control,
citronella oil as a known neutral odour to rodents, TMT in 50% concentraion, TMT in
100% concentration, and also MetOH, which is a noisome odour without any specific
relevance to rodents. We wanted to evaluate the difference between using a high
concentration TMT versus using lower concentration TMT, as the high concentration one
may act as an irritating odour rather than a fear-responsive odour.
We placed the mice in an open-field box and exposed them to each odour for 5
minute intervals. After each odour they had resting days. We videotaped and used Noldus
Observer XT program to evaluate their behaviour. | en_US |
