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What is the Optimum Resting Time Between Behavioral Tasks?
June 21, 2018
If you are a neuroscientist studying the behavioral phenotype of your newly developed knockout mutant line, then the limited number of your valuable animals…
Chia Seed's Ability to Affect Cognition and Behavior
June 18, 2018
Chia seed (Salvia hispanica) has been all over social media lately, appearing as nutritional ingredients used to make smoothies or top-off salads. Chia seed…
Behavioral Testing with Guinea Pigs
June 14, 2018
In regular conversation, guinea pigs are near synonymous with scientific experimentation. Yet despite this ubiquitous metaphor, guinea pigs are not often the…
Behavioral Effects of Congestive Heart Failure in Mice
June 9, 2018
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, is a medical incident where muscle tissue in the heart is damaged by lack of blood flow. Pain…
Maze Basics: T Maze
June 4, 2018
Welcome to Maze Engineers: Maze Basics. Today we’ll talk about the T maze. A Trial Run on the T Maze
Do-It-Yourself: How to Build a Rat Maze
May 29, 2018
Using Mazes to Understand Behavior Mazes have been used for decades as a way to study rodent behavior, particularly learning and memory, navigation, and…
If I am performing a battery of behavioral tests, in what order should I perform them?
May 24, 2018
We have all been in a place whereby the time we were performing the third test of our protocol’s battery of behavioral tests, we realized that our experimental…
Astrocytes Function: Role of astrocytes in animal behavior
May 21, 2018
What are astrocytes? Astrocytes are a type of glial cells found in the brain and spinal cord. They can be easily distinguishable from other cells because they…
Does Diet Soda Affect Behavior?
May 18, 2018
It’s a hot summer’s day and you decide to refresh yourself by sipping on a cold diet soda. You think to yourself, “It’s okay to drink this, it’s just diet soda…
The Effects of Caffeine on Mice Behavior
May 15, 2018
The nervous system has a fundamental role in the control of behavior. In order to modify behavior, stimulant drugs are often used to improve mental processing.…
Amygdala Function and Experimental Manipulation
May 2, 2018
What is the Amygdala? The limbic system is a set of midline structures from the telencephalon, diencephalon and mesencephalon in the temporal lobe that…
Egg Consumption and Behavior
April 23, 2018
What came first, the chicken or the egg, or the bioactive components within the egg which are potent enough to affect behavior? An egg may seem simple, one…
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Procurement and Customization with Maze Engineers
July 11, 2023
Each research field and study is different. At Maze Engineers, we understand the complexities and unique needs of our customers and are highly experienced in…
How to Calibrate and Measure Electrical Current
June 16, 2023
For many of the automated products Maze Engineers offers, shock delivery is required. Shocks are applied using shock grids. To measure the shock current, you…
Animal Models and Apparatus of Sleep Disorders
June 16, 2023
Sleep problems affect a significant portion of the population, with over half of people in the United States reporting difficulties with sleep or excessive…
Guidelines to Rodent Enclosures and Cages
April 6, 2023
The guidelines for biomedical research involving rodents in the USA are set by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Office of Laboratory Animal…
Manual Versus Automated Animal Mazes
February 22, 2023
The American psychologist Dr. Watson shocked the scientific community when he postulated that “the rodents find their way in the environment with the help of a…
Maximum Volume of Oxygen (VO2) Testing in Rodents
February 8, 2023
Maximum volume of oxygen (VO2max) is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen that an individual can consume during exercise. VO2max is expressed in…
Lactate Threshold Testing in Rodents
February 7, 2023
Lactate threshold testing is a measure of the intensity of exercise at which lactate begins to accumulate in the blood at a faster rate than it can be removed.…
Rodent Tagging and Identification
January 9, 2023
Animal tagging is a means to identify and distinguish all the individual animals of interest, which applies to wildlife, farm, or laboratory animals. It…
Grip Strength Tests in Rodents
January 9, 2023
The grip strength test is performed by using the grip strength apparatus. It measures the motor functions of rodents when they grasp a specially designed pull bar assembly with a peak amount of force. The peak force applied is displayed on a digital display with precision force gauges. You can either manually record values or use the included software to do so automatically.
Rodent Metabolism and Measurable Metabolic Parameters
December 13, 2022
Metabolism is the sum of chemical reactions involved in sustaining the life of organisms.[1] It constantly provides your body with the energy to perform…
Methods of Cleaning And Sterilization in the Laboratory
December 7, 2022
Microbiology, tissue culture, medical, equipment manufacturing labs, and many research labs and industries need strict sterile environments for their diverse…
What is Operant Behavior and How to Study It
December 7, 2022
Operant behavior describes a type of voluntary goal-directed actions in animals based on the repercussions of previous occurrences. It develops when animals…
