The inbred Roman rat strains, which have been selected and bred for their very high (RHA) or extremely poor (RLA) ability to acquire the two-way active avoidance task, constitute a bidirectional genetic model in which each strain differs from the other and/or from “standard” laboratory rat strains in a large number of behavioral and neurobiological phenotypes. Relative to Roman low-avoidance (RLA) rats, the Roman High-avoidance (RHA) rats exhibit increased mesolimbic dopamine function, social…
