Mouse Behaviour   

Inbred mice provide a valuable tool for research on behaviour because they are genetically standardized and homogeneous within a strain. When investigators working in different laboratories purchase C57BL/6J mice from the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, USA, for example, they all study mice with identical genotypes. Much less attention has been devoted to standardizing the behavioural test apparatus, testing protocols, and diverse aspects of the laboratory environment in which the mice are reared. It is sometimes taken on faith that apparatus and environmental differences among labs will merely affect the overall mean score on the tests but will nevertheless yield the same pattern of strain differences in each lab. We tested this recently by equating the test situation (apparatus and protocols) and many aspects of the lab environment in three laboratories. Despite our best efforts, however, simultaneous testing of the same 8 strains results in significant and substantial strain by lab interactions. The report of this study appeared recently in Science, and detailed protocols as well as the raw data are available from the web site maintained by Bruce Dudek at SUNY Albany.

Web site for Multi-Site Study

Crabbe, J. C., Wahlsten, D., and Dudek, B. C. Genetics of mouse behavior: interactions with lab environment. Science, 1999. 284: 1670-1672.

Wahlsten, D., Bishop, K., and Kruyer, A. Calibration of computer-monitored running wheels with adjustable drag. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 1997, 29, 280-285.

Goldowitz, D., Wahlsten, D., and Wimer, R.E. (Eds.), Techniques for the Genetic Analysis of Brain and Behavior: Focus on the Mouse. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1992.

Lassalle, J.M., and Wahlsten, D. Behavioral paradigms: General procedures and spatial memory. In: D. Goldowitz, D. Wahlsten and R.E. Wimer (Eds.), Techniques for the Generic Analysis of Brain and Behavior: Focus on the Mouse. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1992, pp. 391-406.

Wahlsten, D. The problem of test reliability in genetic studies of brain-behavior correlation. In: D. Goldowitz, D. Wahlsten and R.E. Wimer (Eds.), Techniques for the Genetic Analysis of Brain and Behavior: Focus on the Mouse. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1992, pp. 407-422.

Lassalle, J.M., Bulman-Fleming, B., and Wahlsten, D. Hybrid vigour and maternal environment in mice. II. Water escape learning, open field activity and spatial memory. Behavioural Processes, 1991, 23, 35-45.