School of Medicine

Circuits and Behavior Core

Reserve equipment by signing up in the appropriate calendar.

Aims

  • Provide equipment, facilities, consultation, and technical expertise for carrying out behavioral experiments
  • Ensure that NINDS investigators have access to equipment and services necessary to assess behavioral phenotypes

Services

The core provides expertise and equipment for many different behavioral assays. See list below.

* Any project involving animals must be approved by the Tufts University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) before initiation. The Core Manager can provide assistance in preparing amendments or sections to include behavioral testing in animal protocols.

Contact

Co-Directors
Chris Dulla, PhD
Jamie Maguire, PhD

Core Manager
Grant Weiss, PhD

Location
South Cove 3

  • The following table shows the fee structure for Tufts neuroscientists and other academic users.

    Use of equipment & facilities

    (without assistance)

    • $20/hr (max charge $80/day)

    Equipment training session

    • $75/hr

    Consultation

    (experimental design, data analysis)

    • $50/hr

    Assay services

    (behavioral assays and surgeries by core personnel)

    • $50/hr

  • Complete list of behavior core services and assays below.

    Learning, Memory, and Cognition

    Emotional memory

    • Fear conditioning (contextual or che-associated modalities)

    Spatial memory

    • Barnes maze
    • Morris water maze
    • Radial arm maze
    • Spontaneous alteration (T maze) - "working memory"
    • Novel object recognition

    Motor Activity (baseline levels or drug-abused effects)

    Locomotor activity

    • Home cage (photobeam breaks)
    • Open-field arena (photobeam breaks)

    Motor coordination and balance

    • Rotarod test

    Pain

    Reactivity to painful stimulation

    • Tailflick test (spinal reflex)
    • Hot plate test (supraspinal pain reflex)

    Anxiety

    Anxiety-like behavior

    • Elevated plus maze (automated)
    • Open-field activity (photobeam breaks)
    • Light/dark box (automated)
    • Startle response (acoustic stimulus)

    Depression/Mood Disorders

    Depressive-like behavior

    • Porsolt forced swim test
    • Tail suspension test
    • Sucrose/saccharin preference

    Schizophrenia

    Prepulse Inhibition

    • Acoustic startle response

    Social Behavior

    Interactive behavior

    • Social interaction test
    • Three-chamber test

    Drug Addiction

    Conditioned reward

    • Conditioned place preference

    Alcohol self-administration

    • Preference (bottle-choice)
    • Drinking in the dark

    Locomotor activity

    • Psychostimulant effect vs. depressant effects
    • Tolerance and sensitization of psychomotor activity

    Chronobiology

    Circadian rhythm

    • Phase controlled wheel running

    Metabolism

    Indirect Calorimetry

    • Energy expenditure (respirometry)
    • Food intake
    • Locomotor activity

    Epilepsy

    EEG Recording

    Contact Grant Weiss for additional information.