Automated assessment of Pavlovian conditioned freezing and shock reactivity in mice using the VideoFreeze system

作者：Anagnostaras Stephan G^*; Wood Suzanne C; Shuman Tristan; Cai Denise J; LeDuc Arthur D; Zurn Karl R; Zurn J Brooks; Sage Jennifer R; Herrera Gerald M

来源：Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2010, 4: 158.

DOI：10.3389/fnbeh.2010.00158

• fear
• classical conditioning
• hippocampus
• amygdala
• phenotyping
• memory
• anxiety

The Pavlovian conditioned freezing paradigm has become a prominent mouse and rat model of learning and memory, as well as of pathological fear. Due to its efficiency, reproducibility and well-defined neurobiology, the paradigm has become widely adopted in large-scale genetic and pharmacological screens. However, one major shortcoming of the use of freezing behavior has been that it has required the use of tedious hand scoring, or a variety of proprietary automated methods that are often poorly validated or difficult to obtain and implement. Here we report an extensive validation of the Video Freeze system in mice, a "turn-key" all-inclusive system for fear conditioning in small animals. Using digital video and near-infrared lighting, the system achieved outstanding performance in scoring both freezing and movement. Given the large-scale adoption of the conditioned freezing paradigm, we encourage similar validation of other automated systems for scoring freezing, or other behaviors.

• 出版日期2010