Testing Options

NEUROMOTOR FUNCTION

• Open field activity – general motor assessment, habituation
• Rotarod – coordination and motor memory
• Balance beam – coordination and balance
• Pole and vertical grid walk tests – bradykinesia
• Foot fault task – limb coordination
• Grip strength – forelimb strength
• DigiGait – Automated gait analysis
• Wireless running wheels – home cage activity, circadian rhythms

ANXIETY, DEPRESSION, AND ADDICTION

• Elevated Plus Maze and Light/Dark Box – exploration based anxiety assessments
• Stress-induced hyperthermia – physiological stress response
• Novelty-induced hypophagia - suppression of feeding-related to anxiety and depression
• Forced Swim and Tail Suspension Tests – Behavioral despair
• Sucrose Preference Test – Test for anhedonia
• Social Interaction – sociability, anxiety
• Behavioral sensitization – drug-induced locomotor testing
• Place conditioning – conditioned preference or aversion
• Drug self-administration – IV or oral consumption of drug following instrumental response

LEARNING AND MEMORY

• Barnes Maze – Spatial reference memory and reversal learning
• Y/T maze – Spatial working memory or recognition memory
• Object placement and/or Novel object recognition – assesses spatial and object-based recognition memory
• Social memory – recognition of a novel vs familiar mouse
• Fear conditioning – cue and/or context-based associative learning
• Operant conditioning – Tasks based upon lever pressing or touch screen approach to obtain food reward. Different tasks can be used to assess various aspects of cognition or motivation

VISUAL RESPONSE AND PAIN

• Optokinetic Response
• Visual Cliff test – depth perception
• Manual or Electronic von Frey – Mechanoreception / allodynia
• Hargreaves test - Thermal nociception