Figure 4.

Twenty-four hours of water deprivation (WD24) promoted active stress coping during innate fear processing (cat exposure) and behavioral despair (forced swimming test, FST). WD24 is a potent physiological stimulus to increase metabolic activities of AVP containing magnocellular neurosecretory neurons in SON and PVN. Upon cat exposure, rats expressed innate fear-related passive (freezing), and active (rearing, climbing, and displacement) behaviors (A,B). Rats from WD24 group showed significant reduction of freezing counts (A) and increase of climbing and rearing behaviors (B). Similar observations were obtained during FST for behavioral despair (C,D). For locomotor control, we performed the elevated plus maze (EPM) test to both groups (E). The WD24 rats showed normal locomotion patterns but reduced percentage of time spent in open-arms. (Mean ± SEM, ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001).