Roper, Randall JGoodlett, Charles RMartínez de Lagrán, MaríaDierssen, Mara
Summary
Down syndrome (DS) is the most frequent genetic cause of intellectual disability and those with DS experience issues in behavioral areas such as neurodevelopment, motor function, and cognition. Current;y, mouse models are the best animal models for the study of DS, and have the potential to guide researchers to drug treatments. It is extremely important to be able to assess behavioral traits in animal models that are disease-relevant before the pursuit of such drug treatments could begin. In this article, researchers describe behavioral tests for mouse models that could be relevant to the areas relevant to DS. A neurodevelopmental behavioral screen, the balance beam test, and the Multivariate Concentric Square Field test to assess multiple behavioral phenotypes and locomotion are described.
Abstract
Down syndrome (DS) is the most frequent genetic cause of intellectual disability, characterized by alterations in different behavioral symptom domains: neurodevelopment, motor behavior, and cognition. As mouse models have the potential to generate data regarding the neurological basis for the specific behavioral profile of DS, and may indicate pharmacological treatments with the potential to affect their behavioral phenotype, it is important to be able to assess disease-relevant behavioral traits in animal models in order to provide biological plausibility to the potential findings. The field is at a juncture that requires assessments that may effectively translate the findings acquired in mouse models to humans with DS. In this article, behavioral tests are described that are relevant to the domains affected in DS. A neurodevelopmental behavioral screen, the balance beam test, and the Multivariate Concentric Square Field test to assess multiple behavioral phenotypes and locomotion are described, discussing the ways to merge these findings to more fully understand cognitive strengths and weaknesses in this population. New directions for approaches to cognitive assessment in mice and humans are discussed. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol 1: Preweaning neurodevelopmental battery Basic Protocol 2: Balance beam Basic Protocol 3: Multivariate concentric square field test (MCSF).
Conditions
Intellectual Disability