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Suggested primary analysis

Purpose

The active avoidance test assesses cued evasion of an aversive stimulus.  The mouse is trained during the acquisition period to escape the aversive stimulus, after which the extinction of the trained behaviour is measured.  We offer varied acquisition and extinction periods to fit your needs and budget. Locomotion, severe vision and other sensory defects can effect this test. 

Sample results

C57BL/6N mice treated with scopolamine or vehicle prior to training.  Scopolamine-treated animals do not improve cued responses indicating a failure to learn.  

Behavior_Active Avoidance graph

Scopolamine treatment prior to active avoidance testing inhibits learning. Evolution of cued responses (% of CR) in C57BL/6N mice during acquisition and extinction phases of active avoidance. Retention test (R) occurs 17 days after final acquisition session.   Sessions in extinction phase are performed without aversive stimulus. Data points reflect Mean ± SEM (n=12). 

Equipment

Automated shuttle boxes (PanLab, Spain)

Recommendation

12 animals per group are recommended for reliable data analysis (alpha=0.05, beta=.2, D=1, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test).

Purpose

This is an associative learning paradigm for measuring emotional learning and memory. A neutral conditioned stimulus (CS, tone) is paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US, foot-shock). After conditioning, the CS or the spatial context alone elicits a central state of fear expressed as reduced locomotor activity or total lack of movement (freezing).

Behavior_Associated memory graph

Comparison of wild-type (WT) and Atp6ap2 brain-specific deletion (MT) in fear-conditioning response as described in Dubos et al. (2015).  Mutant mice are show reduced freezing to context and to cue.  **, p<0.01.

Dubos, A. et al. Human Mol Genet. 2015. 24(23):6736-55.

Equipment

4 automated cages (Coulbourn Instruments, Whitehall, USA)

Recommendations

10 mice per group are recommended for reliable data analysis.

Purpose

Mice are social creatures and develop in group settings but most learning and behavioral tasks are limited to individual mice. IntelliCages allow cognitive and behavioural evaluation in a social environment using transponder technology, which also drastically reduce human involvement at the time of study.  

Purpose

This test is used to evaluate spatial reference memory in rodents. Mice are trained to escape from water by swimming to a submerged platform using only distal extra-maze cues.

Equipment:

2 rooms dedicated to water maze test and videotracking systems are used (Ethovion, Noldus)

Recommendations

10 mice per group are recommended for reliable data analysis.

Purpose

The object recognition task is based on the natural tendency of rodents to explore a novel object / environment in comparison to a familiar one. This test allows evaluation of recognition memory to characterize potential memory defects. 

Equipment

Automated openfield arenas (Panlab, Barcelone, Spain) and different objects (marble, dice…) are required. 

Recommendations

10 mice per group are recommended for reliable data analysis.

Purpose

Object recognition and object location are based on the natural tendency of rodents to explore a new object / environment as compared to a familiar one. These protocols allow evaluation of working / recognition memory.

Purpose

Touchscreen technology allows to explore cognitive deficits with a platform that is translatable across rodents, non-human primates and human subjects (Palmer et al., 2021) lending itself to a high degree of standardization and throughput.This methodology is low stress, using appetitive rather than aversive reinforcement.

Behavior_Touchscreen Chamber2.png      Behavior_TouchScreen Chamber3.png

 

Sample test results

In addition to the traditional behavioral tests used to study cognitive skills, such as novel object recognition, Morris water maze, and fear conditioning, PHENOMIN-ICS has implemented a touchscreen pipeline to assess visual discrimination, cognitive flexibility, and spatial learning.

After pre-training to learn to press an image that appears on the screen in order to obtain a reward of sweet water, the mice are tested in 3 different protocols.

  • In the pairwise discrimination, one of two shapes displayed simultaneously on the screen is correct. Touching the correct shape will be rewarded with sweet liquid. Touching the incorrect shape will be punished with a timeout. This simple task allows to evaluate the visual discrimination of animals.
  • Once the task has been learnt, the stimuli are reversed so that the correct shape now becomes the incorrect shape and vice versa. This reversal learning requires inhibition of prepotent responses and is known to be dependent on the prefrontal cortex.
  • Finally, mice are tested in the paired associates learning, a hippocampus-dependent task. Two flowers or two airplanes are presented, with the left flower and the right airplane used as the correct stimuli rewarded with sweet liquid.

Behavior_TouchScreen_SampleTest.png     

 

Equipment

12 Mouse Touch Screen Systems (Campden Instruments)

Strawberry syrup

Recommendations

12 mice per group are recommended for reliable data analysis.

Purpose

This test allows evaluation of working memory. When placed in the Y-maze, mice tend to alternate visits between the three arms. A mouse with impaired working memory cannot remember which arm it just visited and thus shows decreased spontaneous alternation.

Equipment

Home-made equipment made of PVC.

Recommendations

10 mice per group are recommended for reliable data analysis.

Suggested secondary analysis

See our Anatomopathology dedicated page to explore all our available tests.

See our Gene expression analysis dedicated page to explore our different related tests.

See our In vivo Viral Transduction dedicated page to explore our frequently used vectors and delivery modes including stereotactic admininistration (intraventricular and cerebellar)

 

Food challenge

Purpose

With several months notice, we can procure and provide a variety of different restriction diets for nutritional analyses in conjuction with our other analyses.

Models and Challenges

Purpose

With several months notice, we can procure and provide a variety of different restriction diets for nutritional analyses in conjuction with our other analyses.

See our In vivo Viral Transduction dedicated page to explore our frequently used vectors and delivery modes including stereotactic admininistration (intraventricular and cerebellar)