Behavioral Core

The overall objectives of the Behavioral Core are two-fold:  1)  To make available well-trained behavioral scientists’ expertise and tests/facilities to the La Jolla Torrey Pines Mesa Neuroscience community and, 2)  To improve dialog and foster collaborations between the behavioral scientists in this community in order to decrease redundancies and improve scientific quality and innovation.

The purpose of the Behavioral Core is to provide high quality mouse behavioral assessments to neuroscientists on the La Jolla Torrey Pines Mesa.  A primary focus of this Core is to provide tests that allow investigators to make transitions from laboratory findings to clinical applications by enabling the modeling of human diseases and the development of medications and other treatment strategies.  For example, test batteries have been developed for several neuropsychiatric disorders including anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, disorders of learning and memory, disorders of motor functioning, drug and alcohol abuse and dependence, eating disorders, and other compulsive and impulsive disorders.  Core services include specific behavioral tests, general test batteries, surgical procedures, drug administration protocols, and training in all of these areas.  Included in these services is experimental design advice, assistance with animal protocol submission, data analysis, results interpretation, and assistance with writing descriptions of these tests, results and interpretation in grant proposals and manuscripts.

The expertise and equipment required for the following tests is currently available for core usage. 

General Health/Neurological

            •Visual cliff test (visual acuity)

            •Auditory test

            •Olfactory test

            •Taste discrimination

            •Tail flick test

            •Body temperature measurements

            •Body weight/food intakes/special diets

            •Circadian rhythm determinations

            •Stress responsiveness (corticosterone, behavioral response to stressors)

            •Seizure sensitivity (tail vein infusions of convulsants)

Behavioral (in parentheses are several examples [non-comprehensive] of what these tests assess and relevant diseases/conditions)

•Locomotor activity (locomotion, rearing, circadian rhythmicity; hyperactivity, Huntington’s disease, ALS, neurodegenerative diseases)

•Rotarod performance - fixed speed or accelerating (motor coordination, motor learning; cerebellar dysfunction, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, neurodegenerative diseases)

•Hanging wire test (balance and grip strength; neuromuscular abnormalities, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, neurodegenerative diseases)

•Open field exploration (anxiety-like behavior, exploratory behavior, gait analysis; Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, neurodegenerative diseases)

•Plus maze test (anxiety-like behavior; anxiety disorders)

•Light/dark transfer test (anxiety-like behavior; anxiety disorders)

•Tail suspension test (depressive-like behavior; depression, anxiety disorders)

•Forced swim test (depressive-like behavior; depression, anxiety disorders)

•Marble burying (anxiety-like behavior, obsessive-compulsive behavior; anxiety disorders)

•Head dipping (obsessive-compulsive behavior; anxiety disorders)

•Screen chewing (obsessive-compulsive behavior; anxiety disorders)

•Cued and contextual (fear) conditioning (learning and memory, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, neurodegenerative diseases, anxiety disorders)

•Barnes maze spatial learning test (learning and memory; Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, neurodegenerative diseases)

•Y-maze test – appetitive or aversive (learning; Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, neurodegenerative diseases)

•Novel object exploration (cognitive, exploratory behavior; anxiety disorders, neurodegenerative diseases)

•Behavioral dominance test (aggression)

•Social interaction test (social exploration, social recognition; autism spectrum disorders, neurodegenerative diseases)

•Startle and pre-pulse inhibition tests (auditory threshold, sensory gating; schizophrenia, OCD, PTST, Huntington’s disease)

•Behavioral/drug-induced sensitization (locomotion; schizophrenia)

•Conditioned place preference or avoidance (associative learning; medications development – addictive potential)

•Operant self-administration testing (conditioning for drugs, food, liquids; drug and alcohol abuse, obesity and eating disorders)

Comprehensive Laboratory Animal Monitoring System

            •Activity - total activity counts, ambulatory activity counts

•Feeding - Mass of food consumed, number of feeding bouts and duration

•Drinking - Volume of liquid consumed and/or number of licks

•Basic open circuit metabolic data is provided by Oxymax:
Volume of oxygen consumed mL/(mass)/(time) and mL
Volume of carbon dioxide generated mL/(mass)/(time) and mL Respiratory Exchange Ratio VCO2/VO2
Heat (calculated from gas exchange data) Kcal/(mass)/(time)

•Optional running wheel access

•Optional core body temperature telemetry

Surgical Procedures

            •Jugular vein catheterization

            •Intracerebroventricular cannulation

            •Intracerebral cannulation

Medications Development Testing

            •Administration (acute and chronic) of test compounds prior to/during behavioral assessment

            •Intravenous catheterization for drug administration

            •Intracerebral cannulation for precise administration of test compounds in discrete brain regions

•Tail vein blood sampling

Please contact Dr. Amanda Roberts at aroberts@scripps.edu for more information.