mice-in-the-spotlight

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.
efficiently-screen-plant-resistance-aphids

How you can efficiently screen for plant resistance to aphids

Aphids are small insects that pierce plant leaves and suck out their contents. Although they inflict limited physical destruction to the plant, aphids commonly infect plants with viruses, which can destroy complete harvests.
secret-social-role-ca2-hippocampus

Revealing the secret social role of the CA2 hippocampus

Aggressive behavior is adaptive for most species. But how is this aggressive behavior mediated in the brain? A recent study indicates that the hippocampus is a crucial neural component in mediating social recognition.
zebrafish-larvaes-response-to-water-motion

How to measure a zebrafish larva’s highly stereotyped response to water motion?

At the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, Groneberg and colleagues researched one of the neural bases for behavior in Danio rerio.
dogs-ied-bomb-detection

A new method to evaluate if dogs are suitable for IED bomb detection

Margaret Gruen and her colleagues recently investigated a new method to assess sound induced fear and anxiety in candidate IED-detection dogs – specifically, Labrador retrievers.
video-tracking-effect-influenza-infection

Video-tracking the effect of influenza infection on ferrets

Ferrets are the ideal animal model to assess influenza virus infection and pathogenicity as they display similar clinical symptoms to humans such as sneezing, fever and lethargy.
10-studies-alzheimers-parkinsons

10 behavioral studies on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

This blog post features 10 interesting studies that use innovative techniques to study models of AD and PD and important underlying neuronal mechanisms.
ginkgo-biloba-alzheimers

How Ginkgo biloba helps treat Alzheimer’s

Xu Liu and colleagues recently investigated the effects of Ginkgo biloba extract on a mouse model for Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
deep-brain-imaging

Motivation and eating: deep brain imaging in freely moving mice

Craving a snack, the joy of eating it. The part of our brain that regulates this is the lateral hypothalamus. An interesting targer for addiction and eating disorder research.
how-autistic-fruit-flies-behave

How autistic fruit flies behave

The number of children diagnosed with developmental disorders has increased exponentially in the past 20 yearschemicals such as BPA have been under investigation lately.