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<p>Exploratory activity is a vital form of behavior that develops under the influence of the habitat and animals’ individual experience. The present work presented here assessed the roles of these factors by investigating the exploratory behavior, in an identical environment, of three rodent species occupying different ecological niches, with different navigation characteristics and richness of individual experience: animals from natural populations – the bank vole (<i>Clethrionomys glareolus</i>) and the pygmy wood mouse (<i>Sylvaemus uralensis</i>) – and laboratory mice of the C57BL/6J line. Exploratory behavior was recorded in the standardized open field test. The effects of environmental novelty were studied in conditions in which the animals first explored an empty open field and then an enriched open field over four sessions. Expert annotation of the behavioral repertoire revealed that the animals performed 11 specific behavioral acts directed to mastering the space in the empty arena and 22 types of acts in the enriched arena. Specific behavioral acts characteristic only of rodents from natural populations or only of laboratory mice were identified. Bank voles were found to exhibit significantly less exploratory activity than the two mouse species, whose levels of exploratory activity were not significantly different. A significant factor influencing the exploratory activity of the species being compared was saturation of the environment with objects. Addition of objects not only increased the overall exploratory activity of the animals, but also altered the structure of their exploratory behavior. In contrast to the initial hypothesis, the novelty factor itself had the least effect on behavior, with the effect varying depending on specific forms of behavior and being apparent only in combination with other factors. These results reveal multidimensional and nonlinear relationships in the factors determining rodent behavior in the open field test, which should be taken into account in the analysis of the neural bases of this behavior and in the interpretation of animals’ exploratory behavior in natural conditions.</p>

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Comparative Analysis of the Exploratory Behavior of Laboratory Mice and Rodents from Natural Populations in Standard and Enriched Versions of the Open Field Test

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年7月1日

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  • G. A. Rogov,
  • K. A. Toropova,
  • O. S. Rogozhnikova,
  • V. Yu. Oleinichenko,
  • O. I. Ivashkina

摘要

Exploratory activity is a vital form of behavior that develops under the influence of the habitat and animals’ individual experience. The present work presented here assessed the roles of these factors by investigating the exploratory behavior, in an identical environment, of three rodent species occupying different ecological niches, with different navigation characteristics and richness of individual experience: animals from natural populations – the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) and the pygmy wood mouse (Sylvaemus uralensis) – and laboratory mice of the C57BL/6J line. Exploratory behavior was recorded in the standardized open field test. The effects of environmental novelty were studied in conditions in which the animals first explored an empty open field and then an enriched open field over four sessions. Expert annotation of the behavioral repertoire revealed that the animals performed 11 specific behavioral acts directed to mastering the space in the empty arena and 22 types of acts in the enriched arena. Specific behavioral acts characteristic only of rodents from natural populations or only of laboratory mice were identified. Bank voles were found to exhibit significantly less exploratory activity than the two mouse species, whose levels of exploratory activity were not significantly different. A significant factor influencing the exploratory activity of the species being compared was saturation of the environment with objects. Addition of objects not only increased the overall exploratory activity of the animals, but also altered the structure of their exploratory behavior. In contrast to the initial hypothesis, the novelty factor itself had the least effect on behavior, with the effect varying depending on specific forms of behavior and being apparent only in combination with other factors. These results reveal multidimensional and nonlinear relationships in the factors determining rodent behavior in the open field test, which should be taken into account in the analysis of the neural bases of this behavior and in the interpretation of animals’ exploratory behavior in natural conditions.