Neurophysiology & Behavior Lab

The Animal Behavior facility at the Dept of Biology, University of Crete has the following equipment for behavioral tests:

 

2 Open-field chamers, Elevated plus maze, Fear conditiong chamber, T-maze, Pre-pulse inhibtion chamber

 

 

The Neurophysiology and Behavior Lab has expertise and developed protocols on conducting the following behavioral tests:

 

Emotional tests

• Open-field test

• Elevated plus maze test

• Light-dark box test

 

Memory tests

• Left-right discrimination in the T-maze

• Spontaneous alternation in the T-maze

• Delayed alternation in the T-maze

• Attention set-shifting task

• Object recognition tests

• Context fear conditioning

• Auditory fear conditioning

• Context discrimination

• Context fear conditioning extinction

 

Sensorimotor gating

• Pre-pulse inhibition

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Relevant publications

1. Development of the MAM model of schizophrenia in mice: Sex similarities and differences in hippocampal and prefrontal cortical function, K. Chalkiadaki, A. Velli, E. Kyriazidis, V. Stavroulaki, A. Chatzaki, M. Aivaliotis and K. Sidiropoulou, in revisions (Neuropharmacology) and uploaded to BiorXiv, doi: 10.1101/295741

2. Effects of working memory training on reference memory, reversal learning and synaptic plasticity in mice, V. Ioakimides, X. Konstantoudaki, K. Sidiropoulou, submitted and uploaded to BiorXiv, doi: 10.1101/339432

3. X. Konstantoudaki, K. Chalkiadaki, E. Vassileiou, K. Kalemaki, D. Karagogeos and K. Sidiropoulou, Prefrontal cortical specific differences in behavior and synaptic plasticity between adolescent and adult mice, Journal of Neurophysiology, Nov 22:jn.00189.2017. doi: 10.1152/jn.00189.2017. [Epub ahead of print]

4. V. Nikelotopoulou, K. Sidiropoulou, Y. Dalezios and N. Tavernarakis, BDNF regulates autophagy in the adult brain to coordinate metabolic status and adaptive behavior (2017), Cell Metabolism,Jul 5;26(1):230-242.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2017.06.005

5. P. Efstathopoulos, A. Kourgiantaki, K. Karali, K. Sidiropoulou, A.N. Margioris, A.Gravanis and I. Charalampopoulos (2015) Fingolimod induces neurogenesis in adult mouse hippocampus and improves contextual fear memory, Translational Psychiatry, Nov 24;5:e685. doi: 10.1038/tp.2015.179.

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Funding for this facility has been provided by the University of Crete, the NARSAD young investigator award and a research award from Empirikion foundation to Kyriaki Sidiropoulou.