Is there a right or better time to test your animals in nociceptive behavioral assays? Some people say morning, some say afternoon. What do you think? From my experience, the mice seem to be the most subdued (chill, quiet, not fidgety) in the afternoon. But that may just be because they have had m…

All of my von Frey testing is done in the hour before the start of the dark phase (4-5 pm). I’ve also done von Frey testing at 9-10 am. There was no noticeable difference in mechanical or thermal withdrawal thresholds in those groups. I think that’s primarily because CFA causes robust inflammation t…

All of my von Frey and other behavior assays are performed between 8-1pm. And I try to be very consistent between the time of the day I perform each behavior assay. I think this once again should just be something thats reported in the methods section of a paper, so that if you do see differences b…

Thanks for the info @fmoehring Do you assay during that time for any particular reason, whether it be convenience or something you noticed about the mouse’s behavior? On a related note, because of your paper, I’m paying attention now to the bedding material. Thanks for such careful observation and …

Thanks for chiming in @ram_kandasamy Things like CFA or SNI are so dramatic, that you’re already near the lower limits of detection anyway, and the variance really becomes small. I think there is a lot more variability in naive animals, in fact. In any case, consistency, as best as one can.

Yes we have noticed that our mice settle a lot faster in the morning times, and are therefore sitting a lot calmer than when we performed the experiments in the afternoon. Our mice were jumpier when we performed the experiments later in the day. And thank you very much for your kind words about my …

@lfqueme Yeah, everyone says they’re quiet in the morning. Idk. When I first bring them into the behavior room, they’re jumping around for at least two hours. We usually do behavior right after lunch, around 1-3 pm. That seems to be a sweet spot. Also, note the diurnal variation from Minett et al. a…

I would say as long as you keep it constant within your experiments the time might be something worth noting in the methods but I would go with what works best for you and your laboratory.

What time of day do you perform behavioral assays in mice?

Experimental Techniques Animal Behavior and Models

lfqueme November 3, 2016, 4:49pm 7

Morning, always. If only because as everyone has mentioned the mice seem to settle faster and this allows me to have a consistent acclimation time.

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What time of day do you perform behavioral assays in mice?

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