Name: a behavioral test battery for the repeated assessment of motor skills, mood, and cognition in mice
Uploaded: 2019-03-02T13:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Behavioral Test Battery for the Repeated Assessment of Motor Skills, Mood, and Cognition in Mice at JoVE.com

The authors thank Dr. Cora SW Lai from the School of Biomedical Sciences, the University of Hong Kong, for lending the elevated plus maze test, and the Department of Anesthesiology from the University of Hong Kong for lending the rotarod test apparatus.

All methods described here have been approved by the Committee on the Use of Live Animals in Teaching and Research (CULATR), the University of Hong Kong.
1. General protocol
NOTE: This section is based on Deacon19.
<ol>
	<li>Behavioral room setup
	<ol>
		<li>Get rid of unrelated stimulation/distraction, including direct bright light on the experimental apparatus, odor, noise, and other irrelevant animals, i...

<ol>
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Behavioral analysis of mice is critical for neurodegeneration research. While cognitive function is often the most susceptible domain of behavior affected in neurodegenerative diseases, mood dysfunction, such as depression and anxiety, is often comorbid. Moreover, motor function often affects the interpretation of the results in some tests, such as the novel object recognition test, the elevated plus maze test, and the social interaction test. Based on these thoughts, a comprehensive behavioral test battery is required f...

Neurodegenerative diseases featured devastating behavioral symptoms, including cognitive impairment, mood dysfunctions such as anxiety and depression, or motor dysfunction1. The pathogenesis of various kinds of neurodegenerative diseases is unclear2. Accumulative studies indicate that genetic and environmental factors might both contribute to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Identifying the risk factor of neurodegeneration requires behavioral analysis. Although each type of neurodegenerative disease has its signature behavioral symptom (e.g.,&#160;Alzheimer&#39;s disease [AD] is featured with cognitive impairment and Parkinson&#39;s disease [PD] with motor dysfunction). With the progression of the disease, the patients manifest comorbidity of different behavioral abnormalities3. For example, AD patients show symptoms of mood dysfunction in the advanced stage4,5. PD patients may progress into PD-related dementia and develop cognitive impairment6. Based on these features, the behavioral analysis in neurodegeneration models is usually comprehensive and repeated.
To achieve this goal, a battery which contains classical and widely used behavioral tests with excellent validity was designed for behavioral analyses in motor, mood, and cognition. The motor function can be tested by the open-field test7,8 and the accelerating rotarod test. Mood dysfunction, including social dysfunction, depression, and anxiety, are most commonly seen in neurodegenerative diseases5. Hence, this battery includes a social interaction test for sociability9, the elevated plus maze test for anxiety10, and the forced swim test for depression11. Cognitive impairment is one of the most characteristic symptoms in neurodegenerative diseases such as AD and frontotemporal lobar dementia12. Cognitive domains, including short-term memory and episodic memory, are susceptible to neurodegeneration13,14,15. Therefore, the Morris water maze test for spatial learning and memory16 and the novel object recognition test for short-term memory17 are included in the battery. These tests are compatible with each other. The order of the tests was designed to maximize habituation and to minimize interference, to further increase the compatibility within the battery. Since each function is tested by at least two independent tests that are different in principle and method, the results of each test can be further validated. Moreover, the protocols of some tests are highlighted for repeated testing, facilitating the longitudinal study of the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, this behavior test battery studies different subdomains of behavioral changes seen in various stages of neurodegeneration while costing a minimal number of animals. This battery has been used in a longitudinal study which evaluated the behavioral changes in young adult (3-month-old) male C57BL/6N mice after respiratory exposure to silica nanoparticles, an occupational hazard that is a potential risk factor of neurodegeneration18. However, other strains or models, such as aged mice and genetically manipulated mice, may behave differently than young C57BL/6N mice. Therefore, caution may be required when using this battery in these mice.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>chambers in social interaction test</td>
			<td>home made</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>(8 cm (L) x 6 cm (W) x 12 cm (H)), transparant with holes, plastic</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>cylindrical tanks used in forced swimming test</td>
			<td>home made</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>30 cm height, 20 cm diameters, glass</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>elevated plus maze</td>
			<td>home made</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>open arms (30 x 5 x 0.5 cm) ,closed arms (30 x 5 x 16 cm), center platform (5 x 5 x 0.5 cm), 40 cm tall. Plastic, nontransparant</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>IITC Roto-Rod Apparatus</td>
			<td>IITC life science Inc.</td>
			<td>755, series 8</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>open field arena</td>
			<td>home made</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>60 cm (L) x 60 cm (W) x 40 cm (H), plastic, nontransparant</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>water maze</td>
			<td>home made</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>120 cm in diameter, 60 cm deep, steel</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

a behavioral test battery for the repeated assessment of motor skills, mood, and cognition in mice

Pharmacological and toxicological studies in neurodegeneration require comprehensive behavioral analysis in mice because motor dysfunctions and dysfunctions in mood and cognition are common and often shared symptoms in neurodegenerative diseases. Shown here is a behavioral test battery for motor, mood, and cognition, which can be repeatedly tested in a longitudinal study. This battery assesses the overall behavioral phenotype in mice by examining each domain of behavior with at least two independent well-accepted tests (i.e., open-field test and rotarod test for motor function, social interaction test, elevated plus maze test, and forced swim test for emotional function, and Morris water maze test and novel object recognition test for cognitive function). Therefore, this sensitive and comprehensive test battery is a powerful tool for the study of behavioral alternation in neurodegeneration.

This behavioral test battery was designed for the comprehensive and valid behavioral analysis of motor, mood, and cognition, which are commonly affected in neurodegeneration5. We have applied this battery to study the behavioral changes in young adult C57BL/6N mice after respiratory exposure to silica nanoparticles for 1 month and 2 months18. The results revealed that C57BL/6N mice exposed to silica nanoparticles showed various behavioral ch...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Behavioral Test Battery for the Repeated Assessment of Motor Skills, Mood, and Cognition in Mice at JoVE.com

A Behavioral Test Battery for the Repeated Assessment of Motor Skills, Mood, and Cognition in Mice

A comprehensive behavioral test battery of motor skills, mood&#8212;including social interaction, depression, and anxiety&#8212;and cognition is designed for the repeated assessment of neurodegeneration-related behavioral changes in mice.

Pharmacological and toxicological studies in neurodegeneration require comprehensive behavioral analysis in mice because motor dysfunctions and ...

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