The Elevated Plus Maze Test for Measuring Anxiety-Like Behavior in Rodents

  • Methods Mol Biol. 2019:1916:69-74. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8994-2_4.
Ann-Katrin Kraeuter  1  2 ,  Paul C Guest  3 ,  Zoltán Sarnyai  4  5
Affiliations
  • 1. Laboratory of Psychiatric Neuroscience, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
  • 2. Discipline of Biomedicine, College of Public Health, Medicine and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
  • 3. Laboratory of Neuroproteomics, Department of Biochemistry and Tissue Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil.
  • 4. Laboratory of Psychiatric Neuroscience, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia. [email protected].
  • 5. Discipline of Biomedicine, College of Public Health, Medicine and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia. [email protected].
PMID: 30535682 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8994-2_4
Abstract

The elevated plus maze test is used to measure anxiety-like behavior in rodents. It can be used to gain insight into conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Other conditions marked by anxious behavior. It can also be used as a component in screening of novel compounds for anxiolytic properties. This model is based on aversion to open spaces, which is seen as the animal spending more time in the enclosed arms of the maze. This chapter describes the steps necessary for setting up and conducting the test, along with interpretation of the results.

Keywords
Anxiety; Anxiolytic; Behavior; Elevated plus maze; Mouse; Rodent.