Animal Friendly Methods For Rodent Behavioral Testing In Neuroscience Research

Animal-friendly methods for rodent behavioral testing in neuroscience research

Rodent behavioral testing has been used to study brain functions since the 1890s and has become a gold-standard model in modern neuroscience. Up to the 1950s, most behavioral tests on laboratory rodent models were based on punishments and rewards. Both approaches can lead to a certain degree of animal pain or suffering. Punishments involved the employment of painful stimuli, typically electric shocks. Passive avoidance and fear conditioning tests, among the most widely used behavioral paradigms used to evaluate learning and memory in rodents, can be performed using only a single brief shock. Other tests, such as the active avoidance, might require up to tens or hundreds of shocks, strongly challenging the psychological welfare of the model animals. On the other hand, tests based on rewards, which apparently may seem more ethical, actually still induce suffering in the animals, as food rewards are almost always associated with a food restriction protocol, in order to motivate food-seeking behavior. Rodents are starved for days before starting the test and kept under food restriction for the whole duration of the test. The distress during the testing session is only a minimal part compared to the stress lived outside of the testing session, which is prolonged and continuous. Analogously, liquid rewards commonly rely on a previous water restriction protocol to use thirst as motivation. Animal stress is not only an ethical issue per se, but also an important factor potentially impacting on the reliability and reproducibility of experimental results.

Handbook of Molecular-Genetic Techniques for Brain and Behavior Research

The book gives a broad overview of recombinant DNA techniques for the behavioral neuroscientist, with illustrative examples of applications. Species covered include rodents (mainly mice), Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans and Danio rerio. Experimental techniques required to characterize the behavioral phenotypes of mutant animals is provided. Several aspects of novel molecular-genetic techniques are overviewed and possible research strategies are explained. The sections of the book start with general descriptions of techniques followed by illustrative examples. It is divided into six sections. Section 1, bioinformatics and genomics research. Section 2, top-down strategies, where the researcher starts with the phenotype and then analyzes the associated genes; bottom-up strategies, where the physiological chain leading to a phenotype is analyzed starting from the gene product. Section 3, transgenic approaches in rodents including overexpressing foreign genes and gene-targeting; systemic manipulation approaches directly targeting the central nervous system and methods used with invertebrates. Section 4, methods used to evaluate relevant behavioral phenotypes, including learning and aggression. Section 5, examples on molecular brain research in man. Section 6, ethical aspects of research in this field.

Nature and Nurture, Two Sides of The Coins - Where We Are In the Neuropsychiatric Disorder Research