Effect of light-dark changes on the locomotor activity in open field in adult rats and opossums

There have been no reports on how the light-dark changes determine the locomotor activity of animals in the group of high reactivity (HR) and low reactivity (LR). In the present study we have compared selected parameters of the locomotor activity of the HR and the LR groups of the laboratory opossums and Wistar rats during consecutive, light and dark phases in the open field test. Sixty male Wistar adult rats, at an average weight of 350 g each, and 24 adult Monodelphis opossums of both sexes at an average weight of 120 g each were used. The animals' activity for 2 h daily between the hours of 17:30 and 19:30, in line with the natural light-dark cycle were recorded and then analysed using VideoTrack ver.2.0 (Vievpoint France). According to our results, we noted that a change of the experimental conditions from light to dark involves an increase in the locomotor activity in rats and opossums of the HR group, while there is no effect on the activity of the rats and opossums in the LR group. Locomotor activity in the HR rats, both in the light and dark conditions is characterised by a consistent pattern of change - higher activity in the first stage of the recording and a slowdown (habituation) in the second phase of the observation. The locomotor activity of the opossum, during both light and dark conditions, was observed to be at a consistently high level compared to the rats.