| Title: | Shared Pheromonal Communication of Specific Fear Between Adult Sprague Dawley Rats |
| Address: | "BioMedical Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2331-8325 (Electronic) 2331-8325 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Rats are highly social animals, and mainly communicate with one another in two ways: through ultrasonic vocalizations and pheromones. Most research on pheromones has been dedicated those regarding sexual behavior, but more recently pheromones which signal danger to conspecifics have been identified in rodents. In fact, rats are capable of communicating information regarding a specific fear to a companion with which they share a cage. If a rat is trained to associate a previously neutral odor with a foot shock and then pair housed with another rat, the companion will also display a fear response specific to the trained odor, despite never being shocked itself. This communication relies on pheromones; presenting soiled bedding from a shocked rat to an individually housed naive rat produces the same fear response in the naive rat. The current protocol describes how to produce this phenomenon in adult Sprague Dawley rats. It is simple and easily reproduced, requires minimal equipment, and may be completed within one week" |
| Keywords: | Alarm Pheromone Conditioning Fear Freezing Odor Olfaction Pair-housed Shock;Animals; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINECarew, Samantha J Ghosh, Abhinaba eng 2021/03/05 Bio Protoc. 2020 Mar 20; 10(6):e3564. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3564. eCollection 2020 Mar 20" |
