Towards automated homecage monitoring of group housed rats
Rodent social behavior is important in research on neuropsychiatric disorders, but major limitations hamper progress.
Discrimination learning without human intervention or food restriction
Sylics recently introduced CognitionWall, a new paradigm for discrimination learning in the home cage that avoids the necessity for food restriction and handling in learning tests.
Mice in the spotlight: why you should perform your tests in a home cage
Mouse models are essential for neuroscience research. Many tests are susceptible to bias. Home cage testing provides a number of solutions.
Prof. Berry Spruijt says goodbye (but not really)
Prof. Dr. Berry M. Spruijt recently retired from his position at Utrecht University. I had the honor of attending the symposium that was organized to reflect on and celebrate his career.
A high-throughput method to screen natural behavior of mice
Traditional standard tests with rats or mice are carried out immediately after human interference. Therefore, the behavior of the animals may not be natural and spontaneous.
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.
Unraveling the chemistry of mood disorders
The most common psychiatric disorders are mood and anxiety related. However, the underlying mechanisms of these diseases are still largely unknown. This complicates the development of effective treatment and drugs.
Testing without stress: high-throughput phenotyping
The ability to recognize harmful situations and respond accurately is important for the survival of any animal. In order to respond to these situations the animal must be able to learn, remember, and alter its behavior.
Why it is smart to test your animal in its home cage
Behavior of laboratory rodents is often studied in well-controlled, simple experiments, in an environment that is fundamentally different from the animal’s home cage.
Brain waves and behavior: sleep to learn
To find out more about human and animal learning and memory, we might just have to go to sleep. Ahem – research on sleep, I mean.