Hormonal and cognitive factors associated with the exploratory behavior of rats submitted to repeated sessions of the elevated plus-maze

Naive rats submitted to the elevated plus-maze (EPM) display a characteristic increase in open arm exploration and reduced risk assessment behaviors (RABs) after the administration of anxiolytic drugs. Upon re-exposure to the maze, however, the traditional measures of the EPM become resistant to these drugs. This intriguing phenomenon was initially observed for the benzodiazepine chlordiazepoxide and referred as one-trial tolerance (OTT). In this review, we summarized hormonal, cognitive and neuroanatomical data obtained from rats submitted to the test/retest protocol in the EPM. The re-exposu...