The Rodent Behavior Core provides expertise and services for comprehensive phenotyping of mouse and rat models using a battery of standard behavioral paradigms.
The Core centralizes behavioral assessment facilities and expertise for neuroscience investigators, ensuring that behavioral testing is performed expertly and adheres to best practices in the field. Assessments provided range from sensorimotor, learning and memory, to motivated behavioral measures.
Core Director
Olga (Niki) Kokiko-Cochran, PhD
Olga.Kokiko-cochran@osumc.edu
Core Manager
Julie Fitzgerald
Julie.Fitzgerald@osumc.edu
614-688-4053
Location
Biomedical Research Tower
Wiseman Hall
Available services
Sensorimotor
- Hot/cold plate
- Rotarod
- Open Field
Learning and memory
- Fear Conditioning
- Y Maze
- Novel Object Location/Recognition
- Operant Conditioning
- Morris Watermaze
- Barnes Maze
Affect
- Elevated Plus/Zero Maze
- Forced Swim Test
- Tail Suspension
- Marble Burying Test
Social
- Three Chamber Sociability Test
- Resident Intruder
Open field
- General locomotion
- Anxiety
Elevated plus maze
- Anxiety
Light/dark box
- Anxiety
Conditioned place preference
- Addiction/reward
Forced swim
- Depressive behavior
Rotarod
- Locomotor function
Morris water maze
- Learning
- Operant behavior
- Contact for consult
- Learning, memory, impulsivity, attention, motivation
- Two-lever chambers
- 5-choice nose-poke chambers
User fees
- Core performs testing: $40 /hour
- Training for independent testing: $50 /hour
- Independent testing: $25 /hour
- Consultation: $50 /hour
Behavior core policies
Purpose
The mission of the Behavior Core is to provide standard behavioral phenotyping of mutant and transgenic rodents for neuroscience research projects. The testing is performed by an experienced behavioral technician in consultation with the Core Director. Animals are housed in the Behavior facility during acclimation and testing. The Core will also provide training in behavioral testing to users.
Initiation of projects
Please contact the Core Director or the manager to set up an initial consultation to discuss your behavioral phenotyping needs. We will do our best to provide you with animal behavioral phenotyping services, but if scheduling conflicts arise, priority will be given to projects in the Department of Neuroscience.
Once we have established what testing will be necessary for your rodents, we will transfer your rodents to the BRT vivarium and onto our animal use protocol. Users are responsible for all per diem charges incurred during testing. Once the transfer is complete, the Core staff will perform the testing of your animals and will provide you a preliminary analysis of the results. At the conclusion of testing, your animals will be transferred back to you.
Services
The primary service of the Core is to provide a standard battery of behavioral tests to identify phenotype of mutant and transgenic rodents. The following behavioral assessments are currently available:
- Sensorimotor: visual, auditory, olfactory, grip strength, balance/motor skill
- Learning and Memory: Morris water maze, Barnes maze, tone fear conditioning, passive avoidance
- Affect: anxiety, depressive-like behavior, general activity
- Social Behaviors: social preference, aggression, reproduction
- Sleep and circadian rhythms
User responsibilities
To ensure the best possibility to reveal meaningful behavioral differences, we recommend a minimum of 8 age- and sex-matched animals of each genotype, with appropriate WT controls. Because behaviors are sexually dimorphic, we strongly recommend that testing be limited to one sex, or that 8 animals of each sex and genotype be provided for testing. Please feel free to contact us in advance to discuss your behavioral phenotyping project. Once a project is preliminary accepted by the Core, the User and Core Director must make arrangements (where applicable), regarding (co-) authorships and/or intellectual property issues. Communication regarding scientific questions and outcome of experiments should primarily be between the Core Director and User, and the User needs to communicate these terms of service to lab-members involved in the project. The Core Director may allow logistical or technical issues, such as the timing of individual experiments, to be discussed directly with Core staff.
The User agrees to acknowledge the Neuroscience Behavior Core in any and all publications stemming from data provided to the User by the Core. The User acknowledges that the Core reserves the right to halt or cancel experiments if:
- a minimal likelihood of completion is indicated by the results obtained,
- the User fails to provide requested information on experiments or animals from the Core Director or Core personnel,
- the feasibility of attaining the experimental goals become unrealistic,
- non-adherence by the User to proper personal conduct and/or violation of university rules/procedures.
Selected publications
Genetic diversity drives extreme responses to traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic epilepsy.
Shannon T, Cotter C, Fitzgerald J, Houle S, Levine N, Shen Y, Rajjoub N, Dobres S, Iyer S, Xenakis J, Lynch R, de Villena FP, Kokiko-Cochran O, Gu B. Exp Neurol. 2024 Apr;374:114677. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2024.114677. Epub 2024 Jan 6. PMID: 38185315
Engineered extracellular vesicle-based gene therapy for the treatment of discogenic back pain.
Tang SN, Salazar-Puerta AI, Heimann MK, Kuchynsky K, Rincon-Benavides MA, Kordowski M, Gunsch G, Bodine L, Diop K, Gantt C, Khan S, Bratasz A, Kokiko-Cochran O, Fitzgerald J, Laudier DM, Hoyland JA, Walter BA, Higuita-Castro N, Purmessur D. Biomaterials. 2024 Jul;308:122562. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2024.122562. Epub 2024 Apr 1. PMID: 38583365
Tapp ZM, Ren C, Palmer K, Kumar J, Atluri RR, Fitzgerald J, Velasquez J, Godbout J, Sheridan J, Kokiko-Cochran ON. Neurotrauma Rep. 2023 Sep 21;4(1):613-626. doi: 10.1089/neur.2023.0018. eCollection 2023. PMID: 37752925
Tapp ZM, Cornelius S, Oberster A, Kumar JE, Atluri R, Witcher KG, Oliver B, Bray C, Velasquez J, Zhao F, Peng J, Sheridan J, Askwith C, Godbout JP, Kokiko-Cochran ON. Exp Neurol. 2022 Jul;353:114058. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2022.114058. Epub 2022 Mar 28. PMID: 35358498; PMCID: PMC9068267.
Lateral Fluid Percussion Injury Causes Sex-Specific Deficits in Anterograde but Not Retrograde Memory.
Fitzgerald J, Houle S, Cotter C, Zimomra Z, Martens KM, Vonder Haar C, Kokiko-Cochran ON. Front Behav Neurosci. 2022 Feb 4;16:806598. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.806598. PMID: 35185489; PMCID: PMC8854992.
Disruption of dopamine receptor 1 localization to primary cilia impairs signaling in striatal neurons.
Stubbs T, Koemeter-Cox A, Bingman JI, Zhao F, Kalyanasundaram A, Rowland LA, Periasamy M, Carter CS, Sheffield VC, Askwith CC, Mykytyn K. J Neurosci. 2022 Jul 25;42(35):6692–705. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0497-22.2022. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35882560; PMCID: PMC9436016.
Wolframin is a novel regulator of tau pathology and neurodegeneration.
Chen S, Acosta D, Li L, Liang J, Chang Y, Wang C, Fitzgerald J, Morrison C, Goulbourne CN, Nakano Y, Villegas NCH, Venkataraman L, Brown C, Serrano GE, Bell E, Wemlinger T, Wu M, Kokiko-Cochran ON, Popovich P, Flowers XE, Honig LS, Vonsattel JP, Scharre DW, Beach TG, Ma Q, Kuret J, Kõks S, Urano F, Duff KE, Fu H. Acta Neuropathol. 2022 May;143(5):547-569. doi: 10.1007/s00401-022-02417-4. Epub 2022 Apr 7. PMID: 35389045.
In vivo Mouse Intervertebral Disc Degeneration Models and Their Utility as Translational Models of Clinical Discogenic Back Pain: A Comparative Review.
Tang SN, Walter BA, Heimann MK, Gantt CC, Khan SN, Kokiko-Cochran ON, Askwith CC, Purmessur D. Front Pain Res (Lausanne). 2022 Jun 22;3:894651. doi: 10.3389/fpain.2022.894651. PMID: 35812017; PMCID: PMC9261914.
Hypothalamic AAV-BDNF gene therapy improves metabolic function and behavior in the Magel2-null mouse model of Prader-Willi syndrome.
Queen NJ, Zou X, Anderson JM, Huang W, Appana B, Komatineni S, Wevrick R, Cao L. Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev. 2022 Sep 27;27:131-148. doi: 10.1016/j.omtm.2022.09.012. PMID: 36284766; PMCID: PMC9573893.
Safa A, Lau AR, Aten S, Schilling K, Bales KL, Miller VA, Fitzgerald J, Chen M, Hill K, Dzwigalski K, Obrietan K, Phelps MA, Sadee W, Oberdick J. Front Pharmacol. 2021 Feb 25;11:613328. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.613328. eCollection 2020. PMID: 33716726
Amino acid nanofibers control glycemia and improve cognitive performance in diabetic mice alone and in concert with insulin treatment.
Lee A, Sun Y, Lin T, Song NJ, Mason ML, Leung JH, Kowdley D, Wall J, Brunetti A, Fitzgerald J, Baer LA, Stanford KI, Ortega-Anaya J, Gomes-Dias L, Needleman B, Noria S, Weil ZM, Blakeslee JJ, Jimenez-Flores R, Parquette JR, Ziouzenkova O.
Biomaterials. 2020 May;239:119839. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2020.119839.
PMID: 32065973 PMCID: PMC7085115
Environmental enrichment improves metabolic and behavioral health in the BTBR mouse model of autism.
Queen NJ, Boardman AA, Patel RS, Siu JJ, Mo X, Cao L.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2020 Jan;111:104476. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.104476
PMID 31648110. PMCID: PMC6914218
Implantation of Neuronal Stem Cells Enhances Object Recognition without Increasing
Neurogenesis after Lateral Fluid Percussion Injury in Mice.
Ngwenya LB, Mazumder S, Porter ZR, Minnema A, Oswald DJ, Farhadi HF.
Stem Cells Int. 2018 February 6;2018:4209821. doi: 10.1155/2018/4209821. eCollection 2018.
PMID: 29531536
Alcohol use disorders and traumatic brain injury.
Weil ZM, Corrigan JD, & Karelina K.
Alcohol Res. 2018;39(2):171-180.
PMCID: PMC6561403