Grant Materials

Facilities and Other Resources

The Rodent Behavioral Core (RBC), one of the Emory Integrated Core Facilities (EICF), provides rodent behavioral analysis services. Dr. David Weinshenker is the Scientific Director and Dr. Jason Schroeder is the Core Director who runs the day to day operations and provides services for investigators. The core facility has approximately 1300 sq. ft. of space dedicated to this core within the larger Division of Animal Resources (DAR) facility in the Whitehead Biomedical Research Building. The core space includes three mouse and/or rat testing rooms, and isolated cubicles for particularly sensitive tests.

At present, the following items and tests have been developed and validated by the Core and/or the Weinshenker lab:

Locomotor activity

  1. Novelty-induced locomotor activity
  2. Circadian rhythm

Arousal and attention

  1. Behavioral sleep latency
  2. Latent inhibition

Coordinated movement

  1. Rotarod
  2. Grid performance test
  3. Automated gait analysis
  4. Beam traversal
  5. Pole test
  6. Abnormal involuntary movements (AIMs) scoring

Learning and memory

  1. Morris water maze
  2. Radial arm maze
  3. Y-maze
  4. Social memory/discrimination test paradigm
  5. Novel Object Recognition
  6. Fear Conditioning

Anxiety/Stress

  1. Elevated plus maze
  2. Light/dark box
  3. Open field
  4. Social defeat

Depression

  1. Forced swim test
  2. Tail suspension test
  3. Novelty-suppressed feeding
  4. Chronic unpredictable stress
  5. Sucrose consumption/preference
  6. Social defeat

Seizure susceptibility

  1. Flurothyl seizure chamber
  2. Kanic acid seizures
  3. Pentylenetetrazole seizures
  4. Bicuculline seizures
  5. Audiogenic seizures
  6. Electrical kindling
  7. Increasing current electroshock seizures
  8. Pilocarpine seizures

Reward/Reinforcement

  1. Drug-induced locomotor activity
  2. Drug-induced stereotypy
  3. Sensitization
  4. Conditioned place preference
  5. Oral self-administration
  6. Operant drug self-administration and reinstatement
  7. Operant drug discrimination
  8. Operant cocaine vs. food choice

Aggression

  1. Resident-intruder aggression
  2. Social defeat

Sensorimotor Gating

  1. Acoustic startle
  2. Prepulse inhibition

General hardware/software

  1. 24 rat operant self-administration chambers (Med Associates) (6 of these are equipped with laser systems for optogenetics – see next line below)
  2. 6 OEM 150mW 473nm Laser systems for optogenetics
  3. 4 shock generators
  4. 24 SDI automated locomotor activity chambers
  5. 2 SDI automated conditioned place preference chambers
  6. Clever Systems automated MazeScan software
  7. Video-EEG electrical seizure apparatus (two Grass S44 stimulators, two Grass SIU5 stimulus isolators, two Grass CCU1 constant current units, oscilloscope)
  8. 6 rat cages equipped with running wheels
  9. 8 rat cages equipped with removable wire mesh enclosure for social defeat paradigm 10. 6 video cameras
  10. 1 IntelliCage system
  11. 4 Coulbourn Fear Conditioning Chambers
  12. 4 SDI SRI-LAB chambers

Major Equipment

The Rodent Behavioral Core (RBC), one of the Emory Integrated Core Facilities (EICF), provides rodent behavioral analysis services. Major equipment includes:

  1. Clever Systems automated MazeScan software (2). This tracking software is used in combination with our multiple mazes and apparatuses. It allows for digital recording and unbiased scoring of behavior. One system is used for tracking mouse behavior and the second is used for tracking rat behavior.
  2. Stand-alone rodent enclosures used in combination with the Clever Systems tracking system for animal testing. We have 2 water mazes (1 for mice and 1 for rats), 2 Elevated Plus Mazes (1 for mice and 1 for rats), 2 forced swim test enclosures (1 for mice and 1 for rats), 2 mouse social investigation enclosures, 2 mouse open fields, 1 rat open field, 1 mouse light/dark box, 1 mouse zero maze, 2 rat CPP chambers, 2 mouse Novel Object Recognition enclosures, and 1 mouse Y-maze.
  3. Eight Coulbourn Fear Conditioning Chambers (4 for mice and 4 for rats). These systems are equipped with cameras and software for analyzing fear behavior as evidenced by contextual or cued freezing.
  4. Six OEM 150mW 473nm Laser systems for optogenetics. These systems can be used in combination with six of our operant chambers or on their own for optogenetic stimulation.
  5. Twelve rat operant self-administration chambers (Med Associates) Six of the operant chambers are compatible with laser systems for optogenetics. These chambers allow for investigating a variety of operant behavior including and not limited to food and drug taking and relapse, drug discrimination, as well as responding for optogenetic manipulations.
  6. Six mouse operant self-administration chambers (Med Associates). These chambers allow for investigating a variety of operant behavior including and not limited to food and drug taking and relapse, and drug discrimination.
  7. 32 SDI automated locomotor activity chambers. These systems measure ambulation and general circadian activity in mice and rats.
  8. Four SDI automated conditioned place preference chambers. These chambers assess conditioned place preference/aversion.
  9. Six rat cages equipped with running wheels.
  10. Six video cameras for use in combination with our tracking software or on their own.
  11. One IntelliCage system. Up to ten mice can be implanted with transponders to monitor their fluid intake behavior with minimal handling. Multiple measures of operant behavior and fluid intake can be analyzed using this system.
  12. Four SDI SRI-LAB chambers. Each unit measures startle behavior as well as pre-pulse inhibition, an animal model of schizophrenia-like behavior.