Figure 7
General behavioral assessment.
General assessment of hemizygote DAT transgenic (DAT-tg) rats in comparison to wt rats. (a) wt and DAT-tg rats were weighed across lifespan. Body weight of DAT-tg rats was analyzed relative to body weight of age-matched wt rats. (b) Locomotion was analyzed as the total distance travelled on an open field over 30 min in each n = 10 wt and DAT-tg rats. (c) To study repetitive behavior upon stress-exposure, each n = 7 wt and DAT-tg rats were placed within the chambers used for prepulse inhibition (PPI) test and exposed to unpredictable acoustic stimuli. (d) Sensorimotor gating and arousal was analyzed in the PPI paradigm in wt (n = 14) and DAT-tg rats (n = 7). (e) Anxious behavior was measured in the elevated-plus-maze in wt (n = 15) and DAT-tg rats (n = 6). (f) In the forced swim test, the amount of time spent on struggling, swimming and floating was analyzed in wt (n = 14) and DAT-tg rats (n = 7). (g) In the sucrose consumption test the amount of sweetened condense milk consumed relative to body weight (BW) was measured in wt rats (n = 16) and DAT-tg rats (n = 7). All data are given as mean ± s.e.m. Asterisks (*) indicates significant difference between groups with p < 0.05.
