Anxiety – Social Interaction
The social interaction test is used to assess anxiety-related behavior in rodents by using their natural tendency to interact with unfamiliar conspecific, which might be attenuated in the novel environment. When two unfamiliar rodents are placed together, the animals will spend a certain amount of time interacting with each other. The amount of interaction is measured as time spent sniffing, grooming, climbing and following. Anxiolytic drugs increase interaction time.
A pair of rats from the same treatment group is placed in a novel open field environment and the total time of interactions is measured during the 6 minute test session.
Pretreatment with either diazepam (2 mg/kg; ip) or chlordiazepoxide (5 mg/kg; ip) increases social interaction time in Sprague Dawley rats.
