BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT CORE

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The overall goal of the BehavioralAssessment Core is to provide behavioral assessment for all animalsin this program,both mice and Drosophila. The core will havethe following specific functions: a. To provide quantitative behavioral assessment of young, middle-aged and old CsyBL/dNIA mice to ensure that animals included for study fall within established population norms therebyeliminating behavioral outliers. Initial screening will be done using computer algorithms developed to analyzerest/activity data from digital video recordings to provide estimates of sleep/wake behavior and compare to population-based normative data. Behavioral screening will be done both initially and after mice have recoveredfrom surgery for instrumentation of electrodes. b. To provide a standard system for instrumentation of mice for recording of the electroencephalogram and electromyogram and behavioral assessment ofsleep, its substages, and wakefulness. To also provide a mouse sleep-scoring core that will develop a commonplatform of standardized, high quality scoring of wake and sleep and its substages including analysis of spectral power. Having a scoring core will facilitate the development of a sleep behavioral database andfacilitate comparison ofdata across projects. c. Todo in-depth assessment of behavior in Drosophila using infrared beam break analysis to assess sleep and wake states.