To evaluate the effects of psychotropic drugs on a rat’s exploration (neophilia) and special learning behavior, the
Hole Board Test is frequently used. the Hole-Board apparatus is designed as an enclosed arena with holes in the
floor into which an animal can poke its head (i.e. head-dipping); when confronted with a new environment, the
natural tendency of a mouse or a rat is to explore any present hole by plunging its head in and out of the hole a
few times and then moving on to the next hole. Therefore, the purpose of the Hole-Board test is to assess the effects
of psychotropic drugs on the rat's head dipping and to explore its activity, where in general a high frequency
of head dipping is reflective of normal neophilia while low levels of head dipping is usually indicative of
high anxiety level that prevents the animal from exploring [10].
The frequency and duration of head dipping were recorded to provide a measure of exploration behavior half
an hour from the oral treatment with oil table (1 ml/kg), Tl (200, 400 and 500 mg/kg) and Zepam (6 mg/kg), one
after the other, each rat from each lot was placed at one corner of the board, and ultimately started moving
around and dipping its head into the holes. Then, during each individual test of 5 minutes duration, the number
of head dips per minute was recorded for each rat.