Fig. 7

Locomotor activity (distance, velocity an activity), risk assessment (open/closed ratio), and anxiety (enter to closed) changes during elevated plus maze test. SH sham surgery, VG subdiaphragmatic vagotomy, NaCl single intraperitoneal vehicle injection, LPS single intraperitoneal LPS injection. During first 3 min of test, locomotor activity level was the same in all groups. However, in fourth and fifth minute, sham-operated and vehicle-injected rats (control) were more active. They were also more willing to take risky behaviors. LPS injection, subdiaphragmatic vagotomy, and combination of these two factors reduce this effect. Interestingly, only a combination of LPS injection and vagotomy causes a significant increase of anxiety level; however, this effect was observed only in first minute of the test. Details in text