These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Predator odor as an unconditioned fear stimulus in rats: elicitation of freezing by trimethylthiazoline, a component of fox feces.
    Author: Wallace KJ, Rosen JB.
    Journal: Behav Neurosci; 2000 Oct; 114(5):912-22. PubMed ID: 11085605.
    Abstract:
    Four experiments tested whether an odor from a rat predator can unconditionally elicit a fear response in rats. In a large chamber, rats displayed fear-related behaviors to trimethylthiazoline (TMT, a volatile compound isolated from fox feces), including avoidance and immobility, while showing less exploratory behavior. In a smaller chamber, TMT induced a species-typical fear response, freezing, whereas other odors did not. In addition, TMT systematically elicited more freezing as the amount of TMT increased. Moreover, there was no within-sessions or between-sessions habituation of freezing to TMT, nor did TMT promote contextual conditioning. The results indicate that the predator odor, TMT, can induce a fear-related behavioral response in rats that is controllable and quantifiable, suggesting that TMT-induced freezing may be a useful paradigm for a neurobehavioral system analysis of ecologically relevant, unconditioned fear.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]