Seriously stress a pregnant rat and her offspring will grow up to be anxious. Now, how do you tell if a rat is anxious? You put it in a new (and thus, by definition, scary) environment; how long does it take for it to explore? Or take advantage of the fact that rats, being nocturnal, don’t like bright lights. Take a hungry rat and put some food in the middle of a brightly lit cage; how long until the rat goes for the food? How readily can the rat learn in a novel setting, or socially interact with new rats? How much does the rat defecate in a novel setting?* Prenatally stressed rats, as
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