Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26154309›Full record

ArticlePloS one2015

An Exploration Based Cognitive Bias Test for Mice: Effects of Handling Method and Stereotypic Behaviour.

Janja Novak, Jeremy D Bailoo, Luca Melotti, Jonas Rommen, Hanno Würbel

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
21citing papers in PubMed
4.6field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

21 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. On the importance of including both sexes in animal studies - insights from home-cage monitoring.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026
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  8. Behavioral and Physiologic Effects of Dirty Bedding Exposure in Female ICR Mice.Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2022
    Article
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  13. Mechanisms of recognition in birds and social Hymenoptera: from detection to information processing.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Janja NovakDivision of Animal Welfare, VPH Institute, University of Bern, Länggassstrasse 120, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
Jeremy D BailooDivision of Animal Welfare, VPH Institute, University of Bern, Länggassstrasse 120, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
Luca MelottiDivision of Animal Welfare, VPH Institute, University of Bern, Länggassstrasse 120, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
Jonas RommenDepartment of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Faculty of Biology, University of Marburg, Biegenstraße 10, 35037, Marburg, Germany.
Hanno WürbelDivision of Animal Welfare, VPH Institute, University of Bern, Länggassstrasse 120, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
University of Bern · CHPhilipps University of Marburg · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Behavioural tests to assess affective states are widely used in human research and have recently been extended to animals. These tests assume that affective state influences cognitive processing, and that animals in a negative affective state interpret ambiguous information as expecting a negative outcome (displaying a negative cognitive bias). Most of these tests however, require long discrimination training. The aim of the study was to validate an exploration based cognitive bias test, using two different handling methods, as previous studies have shown that standard tail handling of mice increases physiological and behavioural measures of anxiety compared to cupped handling. Therefore, we hypothesised that tail handled mice would display a negative cognitive bias. We handled 28 female CD-1 mice for 16 weeks using either tail handling or cupped handling. The mice were then trained in an eight arm radial maze, where two adjacent arms predicted a positive outcome (darkness and food), while the two opposite arms predicted a negative outcome (no food, white noise and light). After six days of training, the mice were also given access to the four previously unavailable intermediate ambiguous arms of the radial maze and tested for cognitive bias. We were unable to validate this test, as mice from both handling groups displayed a similar pattern of exploration. Furthermore, we examined whether maze exploration is affected by the expression of stereotypic behaviour in the home cage. Mice with higher levels of stereotypic behaviour spent more time in positive arms and avoided ambiguous arms, displaying a negative cognitive bias. While this test needs further validation, our results indicate that it may allow the assessment of affective state in mice with minimal training-a major confound in current cognitive bias paradigms.

Indexed as

CognitionLearningStereotyped BehaviorAnimal HusbandryAnimalsAnimals, LaboratoryAnxietyBehavior, AnimalDarknessExploratory BehaviorFemaleHandling, PsychologicalHumansMaze LearningMice

Identifiers

PMID26154309
PMCPMC4496074
OpenAlexW1517356784

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.