Marble Burying Test In Mice

Marble burying is an animal model used in scientific research to depict anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder ocd behavior.

Marble burying test in mice.

While widely used there is significant controversy over the interpretation of its results. For the repetitive domain the t maze spontaneous alternation test and marble burying test are described. Prinssen a combined marble burying locomotor activity test in mice. Mice with ocd like symptoms tend to engage in a high degree of repetitive behaviors including digging.

Gyertyan i analysis of the marble burying response. The marble burying test is used to record the number of marbles buried by mice placed in a novel environment. Usually 30 minutes later at least 8 of the 10 marbles will be. In the present study we tried to improve the predictive validity of the marble burying test for anxiety 1 by selecting a strain of mice c57bl 6j that showed spontaneous avoidance of glass marbles and 2 by measuring locomotor activity with a videotracking system both during the marble burying test and if needed in control experiments.

A practical screening test with sensitivity to different classes of anxiolytics and antidepressants. If a marble is placed on the surface of the sawdust the mice will naturally play with and bury the marble. Hence we used the marble burying test to examine if acute immobilization stress leads to enhanced anxiety like behavior in c57bl 6 mice if the test is employed with a significant time delay. It has been shown to be sensitive to benzodiazepines as these compounds reduce burying behaviour when.

When put in a cage with marbles mice with ocd like symptoms tend to engage in a high degree of repetitive behaviors including digging while mice with a high degree of anxiety tend to engage in a high degree of digging in. Marbles serve to measure digging. In this unit behavioral tests are described that are relevant to the domains affected in asd. The marble burying test takes advantage of the proclivity of mice to dig in natural settings e g.

Mice which are placed individually in a cage bury glass marbles that are present in the cage. This test has some predictive value for anti depressant and or anxiolytic drugs. For the communication domain neonatal ultrasonic vocalization and olfactory habituation test toward social and non social odor are described. In the test ten marbles are placed evenly spaced on top of the sawdust looking rather like the top of a bourbon biscuit.

We find this test to be sensitive enough to detect the anxiogenic effects even 10 days after a single episode of 2 h immobilization stress. In the lab the mice live on a deep layer of sawdust. Burrows escape tunnels and in standard cage bedding and the nestlet shred test capitalizes on the fact that mice are nesting animals by nature that build nests for protection of themselves and their offspring against environmental conditions e. It is based on the observation that rats and mice will bury either harmful or harmless objects in their bedding.

When mice are placed in a novel cage a common response is to show increased digging behavior.