Prevalência da resposta de fuga em ratas: Isto explica a diferença de gênero na agressividade da privação de sono?

Abstract

Objective: Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Deprivation (RSD) increases aggressiveness and is manifested in male rats as fighting episodes. The determination of the role played by such fights should constitute an important contribution toward assessing the adaptive function of this type of sleep. Nevertheless, female rats do not exhibit such behavior. Recent data indicate that RSD-induced fighting and wild running flights are panic manifestations, thus advancing the hypothesis that female rats do not fight because their prevalent response in panic situations is flight. Methods: Therefore, 10 male and 12 female rats were acoustically kindled at 14 days of age, and their susceptibility to display wild running was evaluated at 30, 60 and 90 days of age. Results: 6 males and 10 females produced respective totals of 12 and 30 wild running episodes (chi-square test, p=0.0003), with mean (± standard error) of 0.60±0.21 and 1.41±0.24 episodes/rat. (ANOVA/MANOVA, p=0.0169). Conclusions: The results validate the hypothesis and are concordant with the higher frequency of panic attacks observed in women as compared to men.