Detecting Behavioral Deficits Post Traumatic Brain Injury in Rats.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI), ranging from mild to severe, almost always elicits an array of behavioral deficits in injured subjects. Some of these TBI-induced behavioral deficits include cognitive and vestibulomotor deficits as well as anxiety and other consequences. Rodent models of TBI have been (and still are) fundamental in establishing many of the pathophysiological mechanisms of TBI. Animal models are also utilized in screening and testing pharmacological effects of potential therapeutic agents for brain injury treatment. This chapter details validated protocols for each of these behavioral deficits post traumatic brain injury in Sprague-Dawley male rats. The elevated plus maze (EPM) protocol is described for assessing anxiety-like behavior; the Morris water maze protocol for assessing cognitive deficits in learning memory and spatial working memory and the rotarod test for assessing vestibulomotor deficits.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy, 1110 N. Stonewall Ave. CPB 315, Oklahoma, OK, 73117, USA. hawwad@ouhsc.edu.|Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience, College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA. hawwad@ouhsc.edu.
Hibah O
HO
Awwad
D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D000070642:Brain Injuries, Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D008568:Memory; D051381:Rats; D045442:Rotarod Performance Test
Anxiety; Elevated plus maze; Learning; Memory; Morris water maze; Rotarod; Traumatic brain injury; Vestibulomotor