Analysis of Grooming Behavior and Its Utility in Studying Animal Stress, Anxiety, and Depression
In rodents, grooming is a complex and ethologically rich behavior, sensitive to stress and various genetic and pharmacological manipulations, all of which may alter its gross activity and patterning. Observational analysis of grooming activity and its microstructure may serve as a useful measure of stress and anxiety in both wild and laboratory animals. Few studies have looked at grooming behavior more than cursorily, though in-depth analysis of the behavior would immensely benefit fields utilizing rodent research. Here, we present a qualitative approach to grooming activity and patterning analysis in mice, which provides insight into the effects of stress, anxiety, and depression on this behavioral domain. The method involves quantification of the transitions between different stages of grooming, the percentages of incorrect or incomplete grooming bouts, as well as the regional distribution of grooming activity. Using grooming patterning as a behavioral endpoint, this approach permits assessment of stress levels of individual animals, allows identification of grooming phenotypes in various mouse strains, and has vast implications in biological psychiatry, including psychopharmacology, genetics, neurophysiology, and experimental modeling of affective disorders.
- Cell Culturing of Human and Murine Microglia Cell Lines
- Characterization and Validation of Fluorescent Receptor Ligands: A Case Study of the Ionotropic Serotonin Receptor
- Focal Ischemia Models: Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion Induced by Electrocoagulation, Occluding Devices, and Endothelin-1
- Use of Antisense-Generating Plasmids to Probe the Function of Signal Transduction Proteins in Primary Neurons
- Quantification of Microglial Phagocytosis by a Flow Cytometer-Based Assay
- In Vivo Voltammetry: The Use of Carbon-Fiber Electrodes to Monitor Amines and Their Metabolites
- Microinjection Manipulations in the Elucidation of Xenopus Brain Development
- Dissociated Hippocampal Cultures
- Integrative Physiological Studies of Peptides in the Central Nervous System
- 制作视网膜水平切片