Physiological and Behavioral Capabilities
The Behavioral Phenotyping Core at IU School of Medicine offers the following in vivo physiological and behavioral capabilities.
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Basic Sensory/Motor/Reflexive/Autonomic/Consummatory Function
- Frailty index, grip strength, & negative geotaxis reflex
- Motor function (rotarod / wheel running coordination)
- Acoustic and tactile startle reactivity
- 24-hr home-cage core body temperature + activity (circadian rhythm integrity). Capabilities to measure HR/BP and EEG.
- 24-hr food / liquid intake patterns; taste preferences
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Affective Reactivity/Aggression
- Startle responsivity (dark vs enhanced light conditions)
- Social approach / withdrawal
- Stress-induced hyperthermia
- Open-field activity w/ light:dark preference
- Novelty neophobia
- Social dominance behavior
- Resident intruder aggression
- Forced swim / Tail suspension (‘behavioral despair’)
- Elevated plus maze
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Addiction
- Reward-seeking / compulsive drinking:
- 2-bottle access
- Schedule-induced polydipsia
- Dependence:
- Autonomic measurement of withdrawl
- Somatic endpoints [e.g. activity / circadian changes]
- Dysphoria / anhedonia [e.g. sucrose preference, immobility in forced swim / tail suspension]
- Reward-seeking / compulsive drinking:
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Attention/Cognition
- Habituation / dishabituation of startle / open-field activity (nonassociative learning)
- Prepulse inhibition (sensorimotor gating)
- Spontaneous & food-reinforced Y-maze alternation (working memory)
- Novel object recognition (short-term memory)
- Social recognition / learning (ethological memory processes)
- One-trial inhibitory avoidance (memory consolidation/retrieval)
- Active avoidance acquisition / Go, No-Go discrimination (mesolimbic DA, executive function)
- 8-arm radial (dry) maze (spatial learning & memory)
- Morris water maze (spatial learning & memory)
- Active Place Avoidance (spatial learning & memory)
- Classical fear (tone/context) conditioning (associative learning; amygdala/hippocampal circuits)
- Conditioned taste aversion (long-term memory; attentional processes)
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Pain
- Volitional wheel running (motivational processes)
- Standard acute nociception assays (e.g. mechanical allodynia via Von Frey or algometer)
- Volitional 2-plate thermal place preference (hot-cold allodynia)
- Automated shock sensitivity thresholds using flinch response