IR Sociability Apparatus for Rats
The three-chamber test is the classic test to assess social behavior and memory in rodents. This may range from autism disease to dominance tests and social novelty. During the test one animal is freely moving while the other two are confined into circular grid bar cages.
The Ugo Basile system includes a high contrast or IR-transparent floor for the best quality video-tracking and grid bar cages, which enhance the animal interaction. Walls can be transparent or non-transparent, depending on experimental needs.
The initial application of the three-chamber sociability test, J. Crawley was for autism, by comparing the amount of interaction between a novel and a stranger subject.
Additional applications include sociability differences between genders, strains and any other variable, which may end up with a social preference.
Beyond autism, the Sociability test has shown significant translational power also in schizophrenia, where socially disrupted models were performing a worse social novelty inclination.
Procedure-wise, after a period of habituation the subject sociability is determined by measuring the time spent by the freely-moving subject in the proximity of the grid enclosures containing the first unfamiliar (stranger) mouse or rat.
A second stranger is then introduced in the box within its enclosure and the preference for the new mouse/rat can be easily assessed.
Background
- Rodent social behavior is a growing-interest field, especially because in the last decades most of the experiments have been run in isolated animals, and still are, in spite of the fact that mice and rats are social creatures.
- Rodents show a wide range of social behaviors from maternal care to sexual behavior, attachment, learning, dominance and altruism.
- The three-chamber test was first used by J. Crawley in 2004 with the aim of testing sociability and preference for social novelty, and therefore social memory.
- Today this test is used for studying neuropsychiatric disorders, transgenic models, and pharmacology/toxicology applications.
Durable, optimized for video tracking and rodent comfort
- The Ugo Basile system comes complete with:
- A grey, metal or IR-transparent removable floor which optimizes video-tracking, thanks to the bottom illumination (LUX 100, not included)
- A three-compartment chamber with removable doors
- Inner and external walls can be transparent or not
- Internal partitions can be easily removed for cleaning (or replaced with transparent ones, if preferred)
- Circular bar grid enclosures for the non-moving animals maximize animal interaction and have different heights and shapes to avoid animal climbing on the enclosure top (the rat version is cone-shaped)
- Different colours are available and different models for rats or mice
- The system can be completed with video-tracking software, IR-sensitive camera, vari-focal lens objective and ceiling mount
- Multiple cages can be tracked simultaneously
Feature & Benefit of Y-Maze IR for Rats
- Grey floor gives high contrast with both light and dark animals
- Metal bottom with special coating gives a slightly rough surface, pleasant for the animals to walk on, and it’s easy to clean
- Grid enclosures maximize animal interaction and are available in different sizes/colors
- Works even with the most basic video-tracking software
- Transparent or opaque walls and partitions
- For Mice or Rats, 3 different sizes available