Description: Marble burying is a typical behavior in mice that has
been shown to be sensitive to differences based on strain, hippocampal lesions,
and biological/chemical treatments1,2,3,4. The marble burying assay
is quick and requires no specialized equipment to perform. Marble burying
relies on the assessment of naturalistic behaviors that have been attributed to
anxiety-like or OCD-like movements5. In this assay experimenters will allow mice to freely bury marbles placed on top of bedding, mice will be given a determined amount of time to bury these marbles (30 minutes used by our lab) and the number of marbles remaining uncovered will be quantified and compared between genotypes, treatment groups, ages. Overall, the lack of marble burying is indicative of alterations to natural instincts of mice, suggesting perturbations to neurological systems.