Behavioral & Cognitive Testing

Mice prone to tinnitus after acoustic trauma show increased pre-exposure sensitivity to background noise

Noise-induced tinnitus is generally associated with hearing impairment caused by traumatic acoustic overexposure. Previous studies in laboratory animals and human subjects, however, have observed differences in tinnitus susceptibility, even among individuals with similar hearing loss. The mechanisms underlying increased sensitivity...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive TestingAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Rybalko, N., Suchánková, Š., Bureš, Z. et al. 2023. Mice prone to tinnitus after acoustic trauma show increased pre-exposure sensitivity to background noise. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

Ethorobotic rats for rodent behavioral research: Design considerations

Year Published: 2023Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive TestingAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Siddall, R. 2023. Ethorobotic rats for rodent behavioral research: Design considerations. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

Animal-friendly behavioral testing in field studies: Examples from ground squirrels

Field studies of behavior provide insight into the expression of behavior in its natural ecological context and can serve as an important complement to behavioral studies conducted in the lab under controlled conditions. In addition to naturalistic observations, behavioral testing...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive TestingAnimal Type: Other Rodent, Rodent

Citation: Nunes, S. 2023. Animal-friendly behavioral testing in field studies: Examples from ground squirrels. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

Making a case for the free exploratory paradigm: Animal welfare-friendly assays that enhance heterozygosity and ecological validity

Rodents, laboratory rats and mice, have been used as models in experimental research for almost two centuries (Keeler, 1947; Bolles and Woods, 1964; Nishioka, 1995; Guénet and Bonhomme, 2003). During this time, it has been assumed that rodent suffering was...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive TestingAnimal Type: Mouse, Rat, Rodent

Citation: Parsons, M. H., Stryjek, R., Fendt, M. et al. 2023. Making a case for the free exploratory paradigm: Animal welfare-friendly assays that enhance heterozygosity and ecological validity. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

A field-based adaptation of the classic morris water maze to assess learning and memory in a free-living animal

Free-living animals rely on cognitive functions, such as learning and memory, for numerous aspects of their survival. However, research involving these mechanisms is often limited to the laboratory where animals are far removed from natural influences. Here, we adapted the...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive TestingAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: McKay, L., Hunninck, L., Sheriff, M. 2020. A field-based adaptation of the classic morris water maze to assess learning and memory in a free-living animal. Animal Behavior and Cognition 9(4), 396–407.

Challenges and advanced concepts for the assessment of learning and memory function in mice

The mechanisms underlying the formation and retrieval of memories are still an active area of research and discussion. Manifold models have been proposed and refined over the years, with most assuming a dichotomy between memory processes involving non-conscious and conscious...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive TestingAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Lang, B., Kahnau, P., Hohlbaum, K. et al. 2023. Challenges and advanced concepts for the assessment of learning and memory function in mice. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

Automated cognitive testing of monkeys in social groups yields results comparable to individual laboratory-based testing

Cognitive abilities likely evolved in response to specific environmental and social challenges and are therefore expected to be specialized for the life history of each species. Specialized cognitive abilities may be most readily engaged under conditions that approximate the natural...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive Testing, Housing, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Gazes, R. P., Brown, E. K., Basile, B. M. et al. 2013. Automated cognitive testing of monkeys in social groups yields results comparable to individual laboratory-based testing. Animal Cognition 16(3), 445–458.

Environmental enrichment improves hippocampus-dependent spatial learning in female C57BL/6 mice in novel IntelliCage sweet reward-based behavioral tests

The IntelliCage is an automated home-cage system that allows researchers to investigate the spontaneous behavior and learning abilities of group-housed mice. The IntelliCage enables us to increase the standardization and reproducibility of behavioral outcomes by the omission of experimenter–mouse interactions....

Year Published: 2023Topics: Animal Training, Behavioral & Cognitive Testing, Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Bramati, G., Stauffer, P., Nigri, M. et al. 2023. Environmental enrichment improves hippocampus-dependent spatial learning in female C57BL/6 mice in novel IntelliCage sweet reward-based behavioral tests. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

Evidence-based severity assessment of the forced swim test in the rat

The forced swim test (FST) is a traditional assay, which has been used for more than 40 years to assess antidepressant effects of novel drug candidates. In recent years, a debate about the test has focused on the assumption that...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive TestingAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Becker, L., Mallien, A. S., Pfeiffer, N. et al. 2023. Evidence-based severity assessment of the forced swim test in the rat. PLOS ONE 18(10), e0292816.

Social group during housing and testing modulates the effect of ethanol on zebrafish (Danio rerio) behavior

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are a popular model organism in behavioral pharmacology research due to many genetic and neurological similarities with humans. As a social species, the presence (or absence) of conspecifics during housing and testing is likely to affect behavior,...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive Testing, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Fish, Zebrafish

Citation: Alef, R., Blaser, R. E. 2023. Social group during housing and testing modulates the effect of ethanol on zebrafish (Danio rerio) behavior. Behavioural Processes 209, 104877.