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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

A New Method for Inducing a Depression-Like Behavior in Rats
Published on: February 22, 2018
Common and distinct patterns of affective response in dimensions of anxiety and depression
Christine L Larson1, Jack B Nitschke, Richard J Davidson
1Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1116 US. larson37@msu.edu
Abstract:
The authors examined the time course of affective responding associated with different affective dimensions--anxious apprehension, anxious arousal, and anhedonic depression--using an emotion-modulated startle paradigm. Participants high on 1 of these 3 dimensions and nonsymptomatic control participants viewed a series of affective pictures with acoustic startle probes presented before, during, and after the stimuli. All groups exhibited startle potentiation during unpleasant pictures and in anticipation of both pleasant and unpleasant pictures. Compared with control participants, symptomatic participants exhibited sustained potentiation following the offset of unpleasant stimuli and a lack of blink attenuation during and following pleasant stimuli. Common and unique patterns of affective responses in the 3 types of mood symptoms are discussed.
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