Skip to main content
. 2019 Dec 30;9:20305. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-56860-7

Table 6.

Effects of handling method and frequency on anxiety in an elevated plus maze test.

Protected stretch attend Entry to open arms (n) Time on open arms (s) Entry to closed arms (n) Time in central hub (s)
Handling method F2,31 = 11.93 P = 0.0001 F2,31 = 8.30 P = 0.001 F2,31 = 0.74 P = 0.49 F2,31 = 7.04 P = 0.003 F2,31 = 3.86 P = 0.03
Frequency F1,31 = 0.01 P = 0.95 F1,31 = 0.46 P = 0.50 F1,31 = 1.73 P = 0.20 F1,31 = 2.57 P = 0.12 F1,31 = 1.62 P = 0.21
Sex F1,31 = 5.22 P = 0.03 F1,31 = 17.91 P = 0.0002 F1,31 = 0.95 P = 0.34 F1,31 = 10.21 P = 0.003 F1,31 = 3.74 P = 0.06
Method × frequency F2,31 = 0.26 P = 0.77 F2,31 = 0.25 P = 0.78 F2,31 = 0.52 P = 0.60 F2,31 = 0.12 P = 0.89 F2,31 = 0.55 P = 0.58
Method × sex F2,31 = 3.46 P = 0.04 F2,31 = 0.14 P = 0.87 F2,31 = 3.12 P = 0.058 F2,31 = 0.65 P = 0.53 F2,31 = 2.65 P = 0.09
Frequency × sex F1,31 = 0.75 P = 0.39 F1,31 = 0.12 P = 0.73 F1,31 = 0.21 P = 0.65 F1,31 = 0.20 P = 0.66 F1,31 = 0.74 P = 0.40
3 way interaction F2,31 = 0.54 P = 0.59 F2,31 = 0.02 P = 0.98 F2,31 = 2.41 P = 0.11 F2,31 = 0.16 P = 0.85 F2,31 = 1.68 P = 0.20
Planned contrasts:
tail vs tunnel P < 0.0001 P = 0.002 P = 0.23 P = 0.013 P = 0.024
tail vs cup P = 0.001 P = 0.001 P = 0.54 P = 0.001 P = 0.025
Handling method
Males only F2,16 = 2.22 P = 0.14 F2,16 = 0.41 P = 0.67
tail vs tunnel P = 0.07 P = 0.42
tail vs cup P = 0.13 P = 0.49
Females only F2,15 = 9.62 P = 0.002 F2,15 = 3.66 P = 0.05
tail vs tunnel P = 0.001 P = 0.02
tail vs cup P = 0.004 P = 0.10

Mice were handled by their assigned method (tail, tunnel or cup) to transfer them to a clean cage at five fortnightly cage cleans. Half also received brief daily handling between the 4th and 5th cage cleans. Mice were delivered to the elevated plus maze test by their assigned method on the day after their 5th cage clean (data for measures of anxiety (protected stretch attend, entry and time on open arms) shown in Fig. 3C). Repeated measures ANOVAs took into account two mice per cage as a within-subjects factor, with planned contrasts between tail and tunnel or cup methods. Significant effects (P =  < 0.05) are in bold. The effect of handling method was examined for each sex separately where there was a significant or almost significant interaction between handling method and sex.