Gonny Smit
As a Marketing Communication Specialist, I get to read, write, and learn a lot about behavioral neuroscience. I spend my days creating anything from videos and blog posts to website and leaflet content. Outside of the office, I love spending time with my horse, working out, and traveling.
Why guinea pigs are just like us
If zebrafish are the new mice, guinea pigs might be the new rats. Guinea pigs differ from mice and rats, and that just might make them more suitable due to the fact that these results are more easily translated to humans.
Why social pigs do better
If you want to get on in life, is it better to make friends, or should you trample down the competition? Maybe we can learn something from animals…
How Automatic Rat Behavior Recognition was developed
If you are familiar with neurobehavioral research in any way, you will know that variables like velocity and distance moved are important parameters in a lot of animal behavioral experiments.
Top 5 novel object recognition articles
Novel object recognition is one of the most commonly used behavioral tests on laboratory rodents. It is also easily automated with video tracking software. Want to know how?
Testing PCBs toxicity - behavior in zebrafish and their offspring
PCBs are synthetic molecules that were used in transformers, electric motors, and more applications. It was quickly discovered that these molecules are toxic, and subsequently, they were banned.
How zebrafish and optogenetics are great for investigating stress
By this point, we do not need to tell you how popular zebrafish are. We also probably do not need to point out the great technological advances that are being made in research because of the use of optogenetics.
Using CatWalk gait analysis to study monoarthritis in mice
Researchers are always looking for new ways to alleviate symptoms of arthritis. The CatWalk XT has been shown to be very useful in research involving arthritis in rodent models.
The effects of quantum dots on zebrafish larvae locomotor behavior
Ever heard of quantum dots? These dots are nanoparticles made of a semiconductor material, which have unique optical properties, making them of great interest for fields such as biological imaging, medical diagnostics.
Zebrafish research: behavioral differences between wild-type strains
Often in animal research, animals with a certain genetic alteration are compared to a “wild-type”. One might assume that there is no differences between wild-types, but many different strains of wild-type animals are used.
How environmental enrichment reduces the effects of stroke
Some research requires animals to be studied in groups. For this it is very useful to have video tracking software that can automatically track the behavior of multiple animals simultaneously.