Influence of procedural variables on rat inhibitory avoidance and escape behaviors generated by the elevated T-maze

• Diazepam and clonazepam cause anxiolytic effect in a modified elevated T-maze protocol.
• Clonazepam also inhibits escape expression in this test, a panicolytic-like effect.
• The anxiolytic effect of these drugs is canceled out in maze-experienced animals.
• The phenomenon of one-trial tolerance is observed in the T-maze as in the plus-maze.

A wealth of evidence indicates that changes in procedural parameters and/or environmental conditions may exert a remarkable influence on the basal expression of defensive behaviors in different animal tests of anxiety. The goal of the current study was to further investigate the influence of procedural factors upon inhibitory avoidance acquisition and escape expression of male Wistar rats exposed to the elevated T-maze. These responses have been related in terms of psychopathology to generalized anxiety and panic disorders, respectively. Our results showed that the expression of these behaviors is not affected by prior handling of the animals or by increasing the illumination level of the experimental room from 60 to 580 lx. They also showed that enhancing the number of avoidance trials from 3 to 6 favors the acquisition of this behavior. Under this condition, both diazepam (2 mg/kg) and clonazepam (1–4 mg/kg) caused anxiolytic effects, but only the latter benzodiazepine impaired escape expression, a panicolytic-like effect. In animals exposed to the elevated T-maze whole apparatus 24 h before the test, the anxiolytic effect of these drugs was canceled out, which is consistent with the one-trial tolerance phenomenon widely observed in the elevated plus-maze. This procedure, however, does not interfere with the anti-escape effect caused by clonazepam. These results suggest that a 6-trial avoidance learning protocol may be a useful measure for compensating possible individual differences in the acquisition of this defensive response and to improve drug detection in the test.