Characterization of the rat exploratory behavior in the elevated plus-maze with Markov chains

The elevated plus-maze is an animal model of anxiety used to study the effect of different drugs on the behavior of the animal. It consists of a plus-shaped maze with two open and two closed arms elevated 50 cm from the floor. The standard measures used to characterize exploratory behavior in the elevated plus-maze are the time spent and the number of entries in the open arms. In this work, we use Markov chains to characterize the exploratory behavior of the rat in the elevated plus-maze under three different conditions: normal and under the effects of anxiogenic and anxiolytic drugs. The spatial structure of the elevated plus-maze is divided into squares, which are associated with states of a Markov chain. By counting the frequencies of transitions between states during 5-min sessions in the elevated plus-maze, we constructed stochastic matrices for the three conditions studied. The stochastic matrices show specific patterns, which correspond to the observed behaviors of the rat under the three different conditions. For the control group, the stochastic matrix shows a clear preference for places in the closed arms. This preference is enhanced for the anxiogenic group. For the anxiolytic group, the stochastic matrix shows a pattern similar to a random walk. Our results suggest that Markov chains can be used together with the standard measures to characterize the rat behavior in the elevated plus-maze.

Research highlights▶ Markov chains can be used to characterize the rat exploratory behavior in the EPM. ▶ The stochastic matrices show patterns related with different drug conditions. ▶ Anxiogenic drugs generate a nonuniform pattern with a bias towards closed arms. ▶ Anxiolytic drugs generate a uniform pattern similar to the one of a random walk.