The Elevated Plus Maze tests for anxiety-like behavior and locomotion in rodents.
Procedure
The test can be completed in low, normal, or bright lighting depending on the baseline level of anxiety in your control animals (e.g., low lighting is used to encourage more locomotor activity in more anxious rodents). The animal is placed in the center of the maze, randomly alternating the direction the animal is facing to begin and left to explore for 5 min.
Measures
Primary Measures: percent entries into open arms; percent time in open arms; distance traveled
Secondary Measures: See the AnyMaze website for additional available measures from the software
References
(2009) Komada et al., Elevated Plus Maze for Mice https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2762911
(2007) Walf & Frye, The use of the elevated plus maze as an assay of anxiety-related behavior in rodents https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3623971/
Available Equipment
We have one mouse and one rat elevated plus maze available for use within the facility or in your own lab space.
The mouse apparatus (Left) is from Maze Engineers and consists of grey acrylic with 2 open arms 35cm (L) x 5cm (W), 2 closed arms 35cm (L) x 5cm (W) x 20cm (H), raised 61cm from the ground.
