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Physiological and Behavioral Capabilities

The Behavioral Phenotyping Core at IU School of Medicine offers the following in vivo physiological and behavioral capabilities. 
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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]
  • 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)
  • 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