Director:
Kem Singletary
(225) 763-0924

Co-Director:
Chris Morrison
(225) 763-3145

Staff:
Jennifer Terrebonne
(225) 763-3121

Animal Metabolism &
Behavior Core
Pennington Biomedical
Research Center
6400 Perkins Road
Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Hours:
8am - 4pm M-F
Closed Holidays

Animal Metabolism & Behavior Core

PBRC HOME :: AMBC HOME :: EQUIPMENT :: STARTLE & FEAR

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Startle Response

  • Up to 120 dB startle tone or noise, and 100 dB background white noise.
  • Flexible stimulus presentation—auditory, visual, aversive stimulation, or any auxiliary device controllable by 28 V DC.
  • Complete set of all pertinent and peripheral data
    can be viewed graphically and is readily available in an ASCII text format.
  • Overlay response data graphics option to view
    trial-by-trial differences.
  • Startle Response:  The startle response is a biological reflex in response to a startle-eliciting stimulus.  It can be used to evaluate the general health of the auditory system.  In addition, it can be used to evaluate simple reflex learning via habituation.
 
  • Prepulse Inhibition of the startle response (PPI): This test evaluates the ability of the auditory system to gate incoming auditory information.  A low intensity “prepulse” precedes a startle-eliciting noise burst.  Under normal neurological/physiology conditions, presentation of the prepulse reduces the startle response-elicited by the startle eliciting stimulus.   Abnormalities are exhibited when the prepulse fails to reduce the startle response.  This paradigm is often used to evaluate the general health of the auditory system as well as psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia.

 

  • Fear-Potentiated Startle: This is a behavioral paradigm that can be used to evaluate learning and memory through Pavlovian fear conditioning.  When an initially neutral stimulus such as a white noise, light, or tone is repeatedly paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US) such as a shock, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) that predicts the onset of the shock US.  During testing, startle-eliciting noise bursts are presented alone and preceded by the CS. Fear-potentiated startle reflects an elevation of the startle response when the startle stimulus is preceded by the CS compared to the startle response elicited by presentations of the startle stimulus alone.

To learn more about this visit: Med Associates

 

Anxiety & Fear

  • Elevated-Plus maze for mice and rats

The test setting consists of a plus-shaped apparatus with two open and two enclosed arms, each with an open roof, elevated 40–70 cm from the floor. The model is based on rodents' aversion of open spaces. Anxiety-reduction in the plus-maze is indicated by an increase in the proportion of time spent in the open arms (time in open arms/total time in open or closed arms), and an increase in the proportion of entries into the open arms (entries into open arms/total entries into open or closed arms). Total number of arm entries and number of closed-arm entries are usually employed as measures of general activity.

  • Fear Conditioning for mice and rats

Eliminate the need for bright visible light by taking advantage of our NIR-based imaging system. Bright visible lighting yields uniform illumination, which is essential for high quality, low-noise video recording of animal behavior. However, this bright illumination may adversely impact animal behavior by serving as a contextual cue to the animal in some instances.

Our fear conditioning video tracking product line was developed with this limitation in mind. NIR illumination does not impact animal behavior, yet allows high quality video recording to be made using our state-of-the-art digital camera technology.

  • Contextual inserts
  • Video camera
  • Conditioning chamber with stainless-steel grid floor and quick    disconnect harness
  • Programmable tone generator and speaker
  • Electric aversive stimulator/scrambler
  • House light
  • Sound attenuating cubicle with exhaust fan and near infrared/visible lighting system

Uses Pavlovian conditioning principles to evaluate learning and memory in rodents.  During Pavlovian fear conditioning and initially neutral stimulus such as a light or tone conditioned stimulus (CS), or the environmental context is paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US) such as a shock.  The associated of the context or CS with the shock elicits a fear response, in this case, the freezing response.  Freezing is a natural rodent behavior in the presence of a fear-eliciting stimulus, and is defined as the cessation of all movement except that required for respiration. Freezing to both the context and CS can be measured.

To learn more about this visit: Med Associates