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Updated: Jul 11, 2026

A Conflict Model of Reward-seeking Behavior in Male Rats
Published on: February 20, 2019
Study of rat's emotional state in "conflict" situations
K Tukhashvili1, I Fantsulaia, F Kalandarishvili
1Tbilisi State Medical University, I. Beritashvili Institute of Physiology.
Abstract:
The trials performed in the rats revealed that the creation of conflict situations, in the presence of two different motivations simultaneously, results in increase in anxiety state in animals. In terms of evolving and stabilizing the two active avoidance responses in animals, the three cohorts of different learning abilities (good, average and poor) were identified in parental, as well as in filial F1 and F2 generations. While influencing with stress-factors the percentage of rats having a good learning ability decreased, while the number of rats having a poor learning ability increased, respectively. The rising of emotional background was observed through the generations, which confirms that the creation of conflict situations, which affects only one third of the parental individuals as a stress factor, becomes a stress-agent for more and more rats in the further generations. Development of pathologic conditions in animals develops from the anxiety disorder, which further intensifies through the next generations.

