Abstract
Ambulation (exploratory behaviour) and defecation (emotional reactivity) in the Garcia-Sevilla's (1984) low-frightening open field have been proposed as analogous in rats to extraversión and neuroticism personality dimensions. The present study was designed to study these behaviours with the modified version of the open field test in mice. However, ambulation was considered as a possible parallel of human sensation-seeking. According to the previous experiments, no significant negative correlations were found between ambulation and defecation, as usually found between sensation-seeking and anxiety/neuroticism in man. Moreover, a significant decrease of ambulation was also found between the first and forth day of exposure to the test, as the repeated exposure to the same environment seem to lower interest in human high-sensation seekers. Finally, the animals' weight was independent of ambulation in both mouse strains used, and was independent of defecation for Swiss Albino mice.
