Our behavioral test battery assays multiple domains of CNS function. Positive phenotypes can then be explored further using other assays in the lab. The development of each of these responses is also under investigation using different inbred strains of mice.
All testing is performed by a trained experimenter that is blind to the genotype of the mice.
Each batch of mice must contain mutant and wild-type mice. We allow one week between most tests, however, we increase this to 2-4 weeks between the learning and memory tasks. Once all batches of mice have been completed we break the genotype code and analyze the data using appropriate statistical analyses. If a positive phenotype is obtained, then we replicate this finding in a entirely new batch of mice. Alternatively, we will run a second replicate set of mice through the entire test battery.