Marble Burying Problems

It is based on the observation that rats and mice will bury either harmful or harmless objects in their bedding.

Marble burying problems. Marble burying the marble burying test is a useful model of neophobia 1 anxiety 1 7 and obsessive compulsive behavior 8 11. A primary advantage of the marble burying and nestlet shredding tests is the fact that each depends on natural and spontaneous behaviors of mice that can be quantified after test completion allowing a single investigator to set up an experiment and then remain outside of the testing room until sessions end. The marble burying test is commonly used to quantify anxiety obsessive compulsive or repetitive behaviour in rodents 1 3 performance on the marble burying test is also associated with general digging behaviour 4 7 and so the underlying construct being measured is still unclear regardless the typical protocol places 10 25 marbles in a cage containing sawdust or similar. Marble burying is an animal model used in scientific research to depict anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder ocd behavior.

The marble burying behavior test is an acute test. The 1 3 ns finding that marble burying was constant across several exposures at different times of day suggests that burying behavior has no clear diurnal pattern. However modulation of marble burying by serotonin reuptake inhibitors prompted its link to obsessive compulsive disorder compulsive like behavior. It has also been proposed that the test may have predictive validity for the screening of novel antidepressants 12 15 anxiolytics 15 16 and antipsychotics 17 19.