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Can the Hole-Board Test Predict a Rat's Exploratory Behavior in a Free-Exploration Test?

Wojciech PisulaKlaudia ModlinskaKatarzyna GoncikowskaAnna Chrzanowska
Published in: Animals : an open access journal from MDPI (2021)
This study focuses on the rat activity in a hole-board setting that we considered a type of exploratory behavior. The general hypothesis is based on the claim that a motivational mechanism is central to both the response to novelty in a highly familiarized environment and the activity in the hole-board apparatus. Our sample consisted of 80 experimentally naive Lister Hooded rats. All rats were tested in the hole-board apparatus. Twenty individuals with the highest hole-board scores and twenty subjects with the lowest hole-board scores subsequently underwent an established free-exploration test. In our study, the scores obtained in the hole-board test had little predictive value for the rats' activity in the free-exploration test. Based on our previous experience in studying exploratory behavior in the free-exploration test and the data presented in this paper, we suggest that the hole-board test is not an appropriate tool for measuring exploratory behavior in laboratory rodents.
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