Brain Mechanisms Underlying Individual Differences in Reaction to Stress: AnAnimal Model

摘要

Humans who are high risk takers and high sensation seekers show increasingamplitudes (augmenting) of the P1-N1 components of the visual evoked potential (VEP) increasing intensities of light flash, whereas low risk takers show VEP reducing. We developed an animal model of this important dimension of behavior in which we reported that cats and rats who display high levels of exploration, activity, aggression, and risk taking show VEP augmenting as do their human counterparts; similarly cats and rats that are low sensation seekers are VEP reducers. Our published papers describe a number of neurophysiological characteristics associated with VEP augmenting and reducing and thus high and low sensation seekers. We also demonstrated, in our rat model, that augmenting/reducing and the sensation seeking trait have a heritable basis.