Mouse Behavioral Testing: How to Use Mice in Behavioral Neuroscience

Mouse Behavioral Testing: How to Use Mice in Behavioral Neuroscience provides detailed explanations of how to conduct an experiment on mouse behavior from the initial planning of the research design through every step of the process until the data analysis phase.

The book discusses the practical matters that need to be considered carefully when working with any species of animal, such as how many animals need to be tested. It describes the tests and techniques devised specifically for work with mice. Every step of the research process is illustrated with real situations encountered in previous studies. All examples are based on real experiments, and extensive details of several published experiments are provided. The essential features of a behavioral test protocol are outlined, and several complete protocols are provided. Methods to balance the order of tests and determine throughput are described, then a completely balanced order of tests in a complex experiment is presented.

The book will be useful for those already familiar with the general principles of research but are new to the realm of behavioral testing of live mice. It will also serve as a text for a formal course, most likely at the graduate level.

• A guide to running a behavioral testing lab, including the many aspects of mouse research beyond the confines of the specific test
• Diagrams and photographs are shown for many kinds of apparatus and test situations with sufficient details such as dimensions to enable building of replicas
• Provides step-by-step instructions on planning and executing behavioral experiments in order to run them successfully

Dr. Wahlsten received his Ph.D. degree in psychology from the University of California Irvine and completed his postdoctoral work in behavior genetics at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics at the University of Colorado. He then established research laboratories at the University of Waterloo, the University of Alberta, and the University of North Carolina. The laboratory work involved genetic and developmental analysis of mouse brain defects and methods of behavioral testing. He also acquired expertise in statistical data analysis and theoretical issues central to the field. He was a co-founder of the very successful journal Genes, Brain and Behavior, and was given the Distinguished Scientist award by the International Behavioral and Neural Genetics Society. Throughout his career, he has taught behavioral and neural genetics to undergraduate and graduate students.