Robust alternative to the righting reflex to assess arousal in rodents

Sijia Gao; Diany Paola Calderon

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-77162-3

Robust alternative to the righting reflex to assess arousal in rodents

Sci Rep. 2020 Nov 20;10(1):20280. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-77162-3.

Authors

Sijia Gao^{1

2}, Diany Paola Calderon³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anesthesiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, 10065, USA.
² School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, New York, NY, 10044, USA.
³ Department of Anesthesiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, 10065, USA. dpc2003@med.cornell.edu.

Abstract

The righting reflex (RR) is frequently used to assess level of arousal and applied to animal models of a range of neurological disorders. RR produces a binary result that, when positive, is used to infer restoration of consciousness, often without further behavioral corroboration. We find that RR is an unreliable metric for arousal/recovery of consciousness. Instead, cortical activity and motor behavior that accompany RR are a non-binary, superior criterion that accurately calibrates and establishes level of arousal in rodents.

Publication types

Evaluation Study
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Animals
Arousal / physiology*
Behavior Observation Techniques / methods*
Consciousness / physiology
Disease Models, Animal
Electroencephalography
Female
Humans
Male
Mice
Nervous System Diseases / diagnosis*
Nervous System Diseases / physiopathology
Reflex, Righting / physiology*
Reproducibility of Results
Stereotaxic Techniques

Grants and funding

R01 NS094655/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/United States