Endocannabinoids render exploratory behaviour largely independent of the test aversiveness: role of glutamatergic transmission.

To investigate the impact of averseness, controllability and familiarity of a test situation on the involvement of the endocannabinoid system in the regulation of exploratory behaviour, we tested conventional and conditional cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1)-deficient mice in behavioural paradigms with different emotional load, which depended on the strength of illumination and the ability of the animals to avoid the light stimulus. Complete CB1 null-mutant mice (Total-CB1-KO) showed an anxiogenic-like phenotype under circumstances where they were able to avoid the bright light such as the elevated plus-maze and the light/dark avoidance task. Conditional mutant mice lacking CB1 expression s…