Facility
The increased use of transgenic and knockout mice in biomedical research has increased the need for behavioral experimentation. To fill this need, the Murine Neurobehavioral Laboratory (MNL) Core facility was established in conjunction with the Center for Molecular Neuroscience (now the Vanderbilt Brain Institute) and John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. The objective of the MNL Core is to provide training and consulting for Vanderbilt personnel in the analysis of behavioral phenotypes in mice.
Fees. We charge a small fee for the use of our space/equipment. Most fees are for the hourly use of equipment, but for longer studies, there are weekly or monthly fees.
| Single Room Use | $12/hr | Hourly rate ($12/hour) up to a maximum of $60 per 24 hours. (No additional charge for ~30 mins. set up and clean up time per 24 hr experiment) |
| Incubator Home Cage Scan | $60/ 24 hours | |
| EEG | $60/ 24 hours | |
|
Touchscreen |
$1,000/ month | Hourly rate ($12/hour) up to a maximum of $1000 per month. |
| Surgery | $60/ day | Half-day cost is $30. Half day is between 8-1 or 1-6. Additional bookings outside of those time slots will be charged at hourly rate (up to $60 maximum) |
| Incubators (2) | $64 / week $256 / month |
Cost is for two incubators for special housing. Details must be arranged through Core Manager |
| Training | No charge | Please arrange directly with Core Manager |
| Cleaning | $54 | Will be billed if Core Staff need to clean a room after a user has failed to clean appropriately |
Equipment
Locomotor Activity
- Open Field
- Rotarod
- Inverted screen
- Wire Hang
- Pole Climb
- Footprint test
- Treadscan
Learning and Memory
- Habituation
- Y-maze spontaneous alternation
- Snowflake maze
- T-maze spontaneous alternation
- Y-maze spatial recognition
- Hole-board spontaneous alternation
- Morris water maze
- Conditioned freezing
- Active avoidance
- T-maze rewarded alternation
- Radial maze
- Delayed conditional discrimination
- Repeated acquisition
- Social learning of food preference
- Homing procudure
Operant Behavior
- Bussey Touchscreen chambers
- Classic Med-Associates operant chambers
Anxiety
- Light-dark exploration
- Elevated plus maze
- Elevated zero maze
- Visual Cliff
- Startle Response
- Object exploration/response to novelty
- Stress-induced activity
Gross Neurological Screens
- Physical appearance
- Body weight
- Body temperature
- Spontaneous behavior
- Touch escape
- Positional passivity
- Trunk curl
- Whisker reflex
- Reaching reflex
- Body, abdominal, and limb tone
- Pinna reflex
- Preyer reflex
- Object approach
- Tail pinch
- Toe pinch
- Negative geotaxis
- Righting reflexes
- Corneal reflex
- Pupillary contraction
- Provoked salivation and biting
Depression
- Tail suspension
- Forced swim (Porsolt test)
- Learned helplessness
Sensorimotor
- Prepulse Inhibition
- Shock threshold analysis
- Hotplate
- Von Frey filaments
Attention
- 5-hole serial reaction-time task
- Go/no-go
- Latent inhibition
Compulsivity and Perseveration
- Marble burying test
- Nestlet shredding
Social Behavior
- Home cage social behavior
- Social interaction test
-
Tube test for dominance
-
Dyadic Aggression
-
Social affiliation and social novelty
Drug Abuse
- Conditioned Place Preference
- Drug Self-administration
Maternal/Pup Interactions
- Ultrasonic vocalization test
- Nursing behavior
- Nest Building
-
Pup retrieval