Our laboratory uses a specific test battery for the initial assessment of p
henotypic behavioral differences of transgenic, knockout, and inbred strain
s of mice. Our standard battery includes: open field activity, light-dark e
xploration, rotarod, prepulse inhibition (PPI), acoustic startle habituatio
n, conditioned fear, Morris water maze, and hot plate. Tests are run in the
order listed, from least invasive to most invasive, to decrease the chance
that behavioral responses are altered by prior test history. The studies p
resented here were designed around two questions. The first study asks if d
ifferences exist between mice that have undergone testing on different task
s and mice that are naive to the test experience. The second study asks if
the test order affects how an animal performs on subsequent tests. In the f
irst experiment, C57BL/6J male mice were evaluated on all of the tests desc
ribed above. The behavior of these 'test battery' mice was compared to aged
matched naive mice that were only tested on one test from the battery. Res
ults indicate that on some tests, the behavior of 'test battery' mice was s
ignificantly different from the behavior of naive mice, while on other test
s there were no differences. For example, test battery mice responded diffe
rently in the open-field, rotarod, and hot-plate test, but behaved similar
on the PPI and conditioned fear. Experiments in the second study were perfo
rmed on male 129/SvEvTac (129S6) and C57BL/6J male mice. An abbreviated bat
tery of tasks was used and the results suggest that certain test variables
are sensitive to test order, whereas others are resistant. These two studie
s demonstrate that some behavioral tests appear to be sensitive to previous
testing experience, while other tests are immune. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scienc
e Inc. All rights reserved.