ArticlePloS one2011
Effect of population heterogenization on the reproducibility of mouse behavior: a multi-laboratory study.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 81 papers.
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Who cites it
81 citing papers in PubMed.
- Frailty assessment in naturally aged mouse models: classification, limitations, and future directions.GeroScience · 2026Review
- Mechanisms underlying end-organ injury in sleep apnoea.The European respiratory journal · 2026Review
- Testing the Impact of Prey Presentation Method on the Feeding Kinematics of Terrestrial and Aquatic Ambystomatidae.Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2025Article
- Haploinsufficiency of the Tyrosine Hydroxylase Gene in the Inbred C57BL/6J Strain Alters Behavior, Immunity, and Oxidative Stress, Especially After Acute Stress.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Testing the reproducibility of ecological studies on insect behavior in a multi-laboratory setting identifies opportunities for improving experimental rigor.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with realtime ambient sensing.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2025Article
- Multiparametric Assays Capture Sex- and Environment-Dependent Modifiers of Behavioral Phenotypes in Autism Mouse Models.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2024Article
- The role of male quality in sequential mate choice: pregnancy replacement in small mammals?Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Home cage voluntary alcohol consumption increases binge drinking without affecting abstinence-related depressive-like behaviors or operant responding in crossed high alcohol-preferring mice (cHAPs).Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Differences in enteric neuronal density in the NSE-Noggin mouse model across institutes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Using mice from different breeding sites fails to improve replicability of results from single-laboratory studies.Lab animal · 2024Article
- A bespoke water T-maze apparatus and protocol: an optimized, reliable, and repeatable method for screening learning, memory, and executive functioning in laboratory mice.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Environmental enrichment alleviates cognitive and psychomotor alterations and increases adult hippocampal neurogenesis in cocaine withdrawn mice.Addiction biology · 2023Article
- How Well Do Rodent Models of Parkinson's Disease Recapitulate Early Non-Motor Phenotypes? A Systematic Review.Biomedicines · 2022Review
- The rearing environment persistently modulates mouse phenotypes from the molecular to the behavioural level.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- Do multiple experimenters improve the reproducibility of animal studies?PLoS biology · 2022Article
- Systematic heterogenisation to improve reproducibility in animal studies.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- Environmental Enrichment for Rats and Mice Housed in Laboratories: A Metareview.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Review
- Role of Environment and Experimenter in Reproducibility of Behavioral Studies With Laboratory Mice.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Effects of cannabinoids in Parkinson's disease animal models: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open science · 2022Article
21 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In animal experiments, animals, husbandry and test procedures are traditionally standardized to maximize test sensitivity and minimize animal use, assuming that this will also guarantee reproducibility. However, by reducing within-experiment variation, standardization may limit inference to the specific experimental conditions. Indeed, we have recently shown in mice that standardization may generate spurious results in behavioral tests, accounting for poor reproducibility, and that this can be avoided by population heterogenization through systematic variation of experimental conditions. Here, we examined whether a simple form of heterogenization effectively improves reproducibility of test results in a multi-laboratory situation. Each of six laboratories independently ordered 64 female mice of two inbred strains (C57BL/6NCrl, DBA/2NCrl) and examined them for strain differences in five commonly used behavioral tests under two different experimental designs. In the standardized design, experimental conditions were standardized as much as possible in each laboratory, while they were systematically varied with respect to the animals' test age and cage enrichment in the heterogenized design. Although heterogenization tended to improve reproducibility by increasing within-experiment variation relative to between-experiment variation, the effect was too weak to account for the large variation between laboratories. However, our findings confirm the potential of systematic heterogenization for improving reproducibility of animal experiments and highlight the need for effective and practicable heterogenization strategies.
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