MOTOR TESTS

  • Home-cage locomotion (TSE System - InfraMot)
  • Treadmill systems
  • Five lanes (Pan-Lab - Treadmill LE8710M)
  • Single lane compatible with metabolic assessments (TSE Systems - PhenoMaster)
  • Gait and stride analyses (Noldus - CatWalk)
  • Free exploration in Open Field (video tracking by Noldus - MediaRecorder and Ethovision analyses)
  • Rota Rod (Ugo Basile - Mouse RotaRod NG)
  • Grip Strength

                * Grip test (TSE systems - Grip Strength meter)
                * Hanging tests - manual scoring using Mesh or Wire

  • Pole task (manual scoring)
  • Beam Walk (video tracking by Noldus - MediaRecorder and manual scoring)

SENSORY FUNCTIONS

  • Mechanical nociceptive threshold test (Ugo-Basile - Von-Frey test hairs)
  • Acoustic Startle Reflex-Response (TSE-Systems - startle response)
  • Olfactory functions (video tracking by Noldus - MediaRecorder and Ethovision analyses)

                * Homing Test
                * Buried Food
                * Olfactory Habituation/Dishabituation Test
                * Odor Preference Test

PHYSIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENTS

  • Urine collecting system (Hatteras Instruments; CCS2000 Chiller System with MMC100 Metabolic Cage)
  • Blood Pressure

                * Non - Invasive Blood Pressure (Panlab, Harvard Apparatus - NIBP)
                * Invasive - Telemetric assessments (Data Sciences International; DSI - PhysioTel® implants: PA-C10)

  • Cardiovascular and Pulmonary functions (STARR life sciences - MouseOx + system)
  • ​​​​​​Telemetric Biopotential assessments (Data Sciences International DSI - PhysioTel® implants: ETA-F10 or ETA-F20)
  • Aerosol chambers (based on Aerogen - Aeroneb® Pro nebulizers)

STEREOTAXIC SYSTEMS (VIRAL INJECTIONS and CANNULATIONS)

  • Computer monitored with integrated atlas

                * Mouse Benchmark Angle Two (myNeuroLab/Leica)
                * Mouse Robot Stereotaxic (NEUROStar)

  • Manual control

                * Ultra - precise digital mouse stereotaxic (Stoelting)

CONDITIONING LEARNING AND MEMORY

  • Spatial Learning (TSE-Systems - VideoMot2; or Noldus - MediaRecorder and Ethovision analyses + mazes)

                * Morris water maze (may be modified also for 6 arms radial water maze)
                * 8 arms radial maze
                * Barnes Maze
                * Y-maze (Spatial Recognition Memory; Continues Alternations)
                * T-maze (Spontaneous Alterations)

  • Associative Learning

                * Fear Conditioning (Noldus - Ethovision control over PanLab electrical stimulators +  Ethovision activity analyses)
                * Novel Object Recognition (Noldus - MediaRecorder and Ethovision analyses)
                * T-maze Delayed Non-Matching to Sample (manual)

ANXIETY TESTS

  • Novelty aversion based assessments (video tracking by Noldus - MediaRecorder and Ethovision analyses):

                * Open-Field (OF)
                * Dark-Light Transfer (DLT)
                * Elevated Plus Maze (EPM)
                * Marbles Burying (MB)

  • Acoustic Startle Reflex-Response (TSE-Systems - startle response)

DEPRESSIVE LIKE BEHAVIORS

  • Behavioral Despair:

                * Tail Suspension (TSE systems - tail suspension monitor)
                * Forced Swim Test (Noldus - MediaRecorder and Ethovision activity analyses)

  • Anhedonia - Sucrose Preference Test (manual)

SOCIAL BEHAVIORS

  • ​​​​​​​3 chambers social test (Ethovision - Noldus Video Tracking)

                * Social Preference
​​​​​​​                * Social recognition

​​​​​​​CHRONIC ENVIORMENTAL MANIPULATIONS

  • ​​​​​​​Chronic Mild Stress (CMS)
  • ​​​​​​​Chronic Social Defeat