Briefly, rodents are placed in the intersection of the four arms of the elevated plus maze and their behavior is typically recorded for 5 min. Because a lengthy discussion of these key findings is beyond the scope of this protocol, readers are referred to several excellent and instructive reviews 13– 21).īehavioral responses in the elevated plus maze are easily assessed and quantified by an observer. Indeed, the elevated plus maze has been used as a model of state, unconditioned anxiety for over two decades, and there are now over 2,000 papers related to this topic. 1, 3, 7– 12) underlying anxiety behavior.
5, 6) and mechanisms (e.g., GABA, glutamate, serotonin, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis neuromodulators, etc. Furthermore, beyond its utility as a model to detect anxiolytic effects of benzodiazepine-related compounds, the elevated plus maze can be used as a behavioral assay to study the brain sites (e.g., limbic regions, hippocampus, amygdala, dorsal raphe nucleus, etc. The effects of reproductive senescence/aging and/or pre-, peri- or postnatal exposure to various stressors can be assessed. The anxiolytic and anxiogenic effects of pharmacological agents, drugs of abuse and hormones can be investigated. To name a few, prescreening of newly developed pharmacological agents for treatment of anxiety-related disorders can be carried out. There is great diversity in possible applications of the elevated plus maze. Unlike other behavioral assays used to assess anxiety responses that rely upon the presentation of noxious stimuli (i.e., electric shock, food/water deprivation, loud noises, exposure to predator odor, etc.) that typically produce a conditioned response, the elevated plus maze relies upon rodents’ proclivity toward dark, enclosed spaces (approach) and an unconditioned fear of heights/open spaces (avoidance) 4. These authors described the assessment of anxiety behavior of rodents by using the ratio of time spent on the open arms to the time spent on the closed arms. This task was modified into an elevated maze with four arms (two open and two enclosed) that are arranged to form a plus shape and was described by Handley and Mithani 3. A task, using a Y-shaped apparatus that included an elevated open alley, which produced a strong approach–avoidance conflict, and an enclosed alley, which did not, was first described by Montgomery 2. The elevated plus maze has been described as a simple method for assessing anxiety responses of rodents by File and co-workers 1.
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