The Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory

The Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory is a rodent lab shared by Department of Psychology faculty members who have an interest in Behavioral Neuroscience.

Topics under study in the lab include:

• The effects of psychostimulant drugs on learned and unlearned behavior.

• The mechanisms involved in psychostimulant-induced acute withdrawal.

• The neural and neurochemical mechanisms mediating higher order learning.

The laboratory is approximately 1800 square feet in area and is divided into sections for animal housing and maintenance, surgery and histology, and behavioral testing.  The animal colony can house 150 adult rats.  The maintenance room that adjoins the colony contains animal care and cleaning supplies, including a stainless steel automatic cage and bottle washer.  The section of the lab devoted to behavioral testing includes eight small rooms and two larger ones.

Laboratory equipment includes:

• Eight Coulbourn Instruments Operant Test Chambers controlled by a microcomputer, Coulbourn interfaces, and Coulbourn software

• Four San Diego Instruments Open Fields equipped with a video camera connected to a microcomputer running tracking software

• Four Med-Associates Activity Chambers controlled by a microcomputer, a Med Associates interface, and Med Associates activity monitoring software

• Two sets of four Med Associates Operant Test Chambers controlled by microcomputers, Med Associates interfaces, and Med-PC software

• Sixteen cubicles, for long term housing and monitoring of animals, equipped with video cameras connected to a microcomputer running Noldus Ethovision tracking software

• A system for recording single or multi unit neural activity in freely moving rats

• Stereotaxic device

• Surgical instruments

• Lesion maker

• Infusion pumps

• Analytical balances

• Various equipment for drug preparation including stirrers and shakers

• Microtome

• Histological supplies

• Microscopes

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