Keywords
Clonazepam
Wistar rats
Receptors
GABA-A
Anti-Anxiety Agents
How to Cite
Abstract
Background: It has been seen that rats not enclosed, nor medicated with clonazepam, can perceive the anguish of trapped rats and that the feeling, socially acquired, motivates the act of opening the door of free rats, unlike those who are administered the drug. Our aim was to determine if clonazepam has any effect on the helping instinct motivated by empathy, in male Wistar rats.
Methods: Twenty-four male Wistar rats separated into 3 experimental groups were studied: 1) an assistant rat medicated with clonazepam and another one enclosed in a pool with water
to stress it); 2) an assistant rat without clonazepam and another one enclosed a pool with water; 3) the third group, an assistant rat without clonazepam and another one locked in the pool without water (without the stress agent). The experiments were carried out in a compartmentalized acrylic box that could only be opened on the side without a pool. Control tests were also carried out to evaluate the interest of the assistant rat.
Results: 9.5%, 64.9% and 51.5% of the rats opened the doors to their partners, with the opening latency times in each case being 35.71±35.97 s, 45.25±40.11 s and 31.87±41.68 s, in experiments 1, 2 and 3, respectively.
Conclusion: Clonazepam probably has a blocking effect on the empathic response of a rat to its stressed partner.
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Copyright (c) 2023 Alexandre Michel Moutteau Arias, Juliana Aracelli Serrano Narvaez, José Nicolás Aranda González, Sergio Iván Nuñez Samudio, Claudia Fabiana Centurión- Wenninger