The Elevated Plus Maze Test for Measuring Anxiety-Like Behavior in Rodents.
Abstract
The elevated plus maze test is used to measure anxiety-like behavior in rodents. It can be used to gain insight into conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other conditions marked by anxious behavior. It can also be used as a component in screening of novel compounds for anxiolytic properties. This model is based on aversion to open spaces, which is seen as the animal spending more time in the enclosed arms of the maze. This chapter describes the steps necessary for setting up and conducting the test, along with interpretation of the results.
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Increased markers of open arm exploration in EPM reflect reduced anxiety, based on rats' aversion of open spaces.
“EPM: Increased markers of open arm exploration (% time and distance exploring the open arm) reflect reduced anxiety, based on rats’ aversion of open spaces ( Kraeuter et al., 2019).”
From Stage 2 Registered Report: Refinement of tickling protocols to improve positive animal welfare in laboratory rats (2025) · cites this paper as Kraeuter et al., 2019
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Moscarello, J. M., & Penzo, M. A. (2022) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41593-022-01130-5 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Bombail, V., Brown, S. M., Beyts, C., Martin, J. E., Li, T., Meddle, S. L., Mendl, M., Robinson, E. S., Hammond, T. J., Nielsen, B. L., et al. (2025) · F1000Research · doi:10.12688/f1000research.166417.2 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
- Authors
- Kraeuter, A.-K., Guest, P. C., & Sarnyai, Z.
- Affiliations
- Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AU)
- Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) (BR)
- Venue
- Methods in Molecular Biology
- Publisher
- Springer New York
- Published
- 2018-12-11
- Volume
- 1916
- Pages
- 69-74
- ISSN
- 1064-3745 (ISSN-L)
- 1940-6029
- OpenAlex
- W2905365975
- Cited by
- 328
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 42 · 2025: 65 · 2024: 66 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 1 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 17.34
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Methods in molecular biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ResearchOnline at James Cook University (James Cook University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Keywords
- elevated plus maze, anxiety-like behavior, rodents, post-traumatic stress disorder
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Anxiety, Behavior, Animal, Disease Models, Animal, Humans, Molecular Biology, Rodentia, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Anti-Anxiety Agents, Maze Learning, Mice
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