Jul 23, 2020

Public workspaceElevated Plus Maze

This protocol is a draft, published without a DOI.
  • 1UCSD;
  • 2University of California, San Diego
  • George Lab @ UCSD
    Tech. support email: olgeorge@ucsd.edu
Lani Tieu
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Protocol Citation: Lauren Smith, Lani Tieu, Olivier George 2020. Elevated Plus Maze. protocols.io https://protocols.io/view/elevated-plus-maze-bh3ej8je
License: This is an open access protocol distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,  which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Protocol status: Working
We use this protocol and it's working
Created: June 30, 2020
Last Modified: July 23, 2020
Protocol Integer ID: 38726
Keywords: elevated plus maze, anxiety, behavior, rats,
Abstract
The elevated plus maze is used to measure anxiety-like behavior in rodents, and to assess the anxiolytic effects of pharmacological compounds. Time in the open arms of the maze reflects anti-anxiety-related behavior.
Guidelines
Perform this experiment in a dimmed and quiet room with at least 2 people.
Materials
  • Elevated plus maze
  • Timer
  • Stopwatch
  • Quatricide
Before start
Set up the elevated plus maze.
Elevated plus maze.

Procedure
Procedure
5m
5m
Place rat in center of elevated plus maze and set the timer to 5 minutes.
  1. Use stopwatch to record the amount of time spent in open arms.
  2. In addition, tally the number of entries into each arm (open or closed).
Note
At least 3/4 of the rat's body must enter the arm to count as time spent in that arm.

After 5 minutes is up, calculate and write down the total amount of time spent in open arms and the total amount of time spent in closed arms.
Place the rat back in its home cage.
Clean the maze with quatricide before testing the next rat.
Note
Make sure to clean the maze in between each rat.