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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Mar 9.
Published in final edited form as: Stress. 2013 May 16;16(5):531–539. doi: 10.3109/10253890.2013.794449

Figure 4.

Figure 4

The predictability of immobilization (IMO) stress influenced the biobehavioral stress response. A, Females exposed to 1 day IMO delayed entry into the open arm in the EPM test compared to handled control females (HAN) and females exposed to 3 or 7 day predictable IMO (pIMO). B, The percentage of time that females spent in the open arms during the EPM test was lower after exposure to 1 day IMO, 3 day uIMO, and 7 day unpredictable IMO (uIMO) compared to HAN controls. No differences were observed between HAN control females or females exposed to 3 or 7 day pIMO. C, None of the stressors influenced locomotor behavior (i.e., total arm entries) during the EPM test. D, Corticosterone remained elevated 30 min post-stress in response to exposure to 1 day IMO, 3 day pIMO, 3 day uIMO, and 7 day uIMO compared to HAN controls. However, no differences were observed between HAN controls and 7 day pIMO. Females exposed to 7 day uIMO had significantly higher corticosterone levels than 1 day IMO and 7 day pIMO. E, Female plasma corticosterone concentrations were negatively associated with the percentage of time females spent in the open arm in the EPM test. Bars labeled with different letters differ significantly by Gabriel's post-hoc test in which a significant main effect was detected in the ANOVA (p < 0.05). A–D, Data are expressed as mean ± SEM.