Lesions of the pedunclopontine tegmental nucleus increase anxiety in rats

To test the hypothesis that the pedunclopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) plays a role in anxiety, rats with electrolytic lesions of the PPTg were tested in two animal models of anxiety, the elevated plus maze and the social interaction tests. Histological analysis showed that lesions were concentrated on the caudal half of the PPTg. In the elevated plus maze, traditional as well as 'risk assessment' measures indicated significantly increased anxiety in the PPTg-lesioned rats vs sham-operated controls. In the social interaction test, behavioural scores were biased towards elevated anxiety in the PPTg-lesioned rats but only the number of social sniffs reached significance. Our results confirm that electrolytic lesions of the caudal PPTg produce increased anxiety.