CURRENT TRENDS IN NEUROSCIENCES
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR TESTING IN NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH
Yayıncı:
İstanbul Üniversitesi Yayınları
Animal behavior tests are widely used in neuroscience research to study the underlying mechanisms of various neurological and behavioral diseases. This section discusses the major animal behavior tests used in neuroscience research for studying anxiety, stress, depression, learning, memory, executive functions, social behavior, locomotor activity, and pain sensitivity. Anxiety is often studied using 0 maze, elevated plus maze, light dark box, open field test, and marble burying tests. Tail suspension test, the forced swim test, social defeat test, novelty suppressed feeding test, sucrose preference test, and learned helplessness test are used to measure stress and depression in animals. Further, memory and learning are typically evaluated using the Morris water maze, radial arm maze, novel object recognition test, object location memory test, active and passive avoidance tests, fear conditioning test, conditioned place preference test, T-maze, Barned maze, and Y-maze. Executive functions are commonly examined using the go/no-go task, set-shifting task, spatial reversal learning task, and multiple choice serial reaction time task. Moreover, social behavior is evaluated by social recognition test, sociability chamber, and resident-intruder test. Rotarod, open field test, beam walking test, digging test, cylinder test, wire hanging test, treadmill, and pole test are the most known tests to study locomotor activity. Lastly, pain sensitivity is evaluated using hot plate test, tail flick test, formalin test, von Frey test, and writhing tests. In conclusion, all of these tests provide important insights into the complex interplay between behavior and the brain.
