Marble Burying Problems

Marble burying is an animal model used in scientific research to depict anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder ocd behavior.

Marble burying problems.

Marble burying the marble burying test is a useful model of neophobia 1 anxiety 1 7 and obsessive compulsive behavior 8 11. A primary advantage of the marble burying and nestlet shredding tests is the fact that each depends on natural and spontaneous behaviors of mice that can be quantified after test completion allowing a single investigator to set up an experiment and then remain outside of the testing room until sessions end. However some investigators incorporate the sub acute treatment regimen as an essential component for screening anti compulsive agents. The marble burying test is commonly used to quantify anxiety obsessive compulsive or repetitive behaviour in rodents 1 3 performance on the marble burying test is also associated with general digging behaviour 4 7 and so the underlying construct being measured is still unclear regardless the typical protocol places 10 25 marbles in a cage containing sawdust or similar.

1 3 since the bulk of this work was done using female mice the 1 1 ns finding that males have the same propensity to bury marbles shows 1 5 ns that the behavior is not peculiar to. While widely used there is significant controversy over the interpretation of its results. It is based on the observation that rats and mice will bury either harmful or harmless objects in their bedding. However modulation of marble burying by serotonin reuptake inhibitors prompted its link to obsessive compulsive disorder compulsive like behavior.