Behavioral Testing Core Facility
Overview
The Behavioral Testing Core (BTC) is UCLA's dedicated resource for rodent behavioral research, housed within the Psychology Department and serving a broad multidisciplinary research community. We offer comprehensive behavioral phenotyping across anxiety, cognition, motor, and reward domains, with equipment including operant conditioning chambers, touchscreen systems, and smart home cages with 24-hour activity tracking and running wheels. Our team supports everything from neurodegenerative disease models to highly specialized projects exploring the intersection of peripheral biology and behavior. We also leverage machine learning tools — including SLEAP and DeepLabCut — to deliver richer, more precise behavioral data than traditional methods alone can provide. If you're looking for an experienced, versatile partner for your next behavioral study, we'd love to work with you.
Leadership
Services
We provide a variety of behavioral tasks, most of which can be performed in both mice and rats.
Affective Behaviors
Affective behavioral tests are designed to measure the internal emotional state of an animal.
While we cannot directly ask a mouse if they are feeling sad or anxious, cleverly designed behavioral tests capitalize on innate and predictable behaviors of rodents in order to indirectly observe their affective states.
Though many affective tests appear straightforward and easy to run, these tests rely on subtle, indirect behavioral observations, and therefore require a very clear understanding of their purpose, as well as any confounding variables that may impact the interpretation of the data. If you aren’t sure why you are choosing a specific test, or which one might be most appropriate for testing your hypothesis, ASK US!
- Aggression and Social Defeat
- Elevated Plus Maze
- Fear Conditioning (cued & contextual)
- Forced Swim Test
- Light-Dark Box
- Marble Burying
- Novelty Suppressed Feeding
- Open Field
- Passive Avoidance (Step-down)
- Social Interaction & Recognition
- Social Transmission of Food Preference
- Sucrose Preference Test
- Tail Suspension
- Ultrasonic Vocalization
See also:
- Conditioned place preference/aversion
- Pre-pulse inhibition
- Startle Response
- Taste Aversion
Learning and Memory
The following tasks are designed to asses Learning and Memory deficits and enhancements in Mice and Rats.
- Fear Conditioning
- Startle/PPI
- Morris Water Maze
- Novel Object Recognition
- Radial Arms Maze
- T-Maze
- Spontaneous Alternation
- Conditioned Taste Aversion
- Operant Touch Screen
Conditioned Place Preference or Aversion
In a Conditioned Place Preference task, the animal learns an association between an enviroment with distinctive cues and a positive reinforcer. It is often used as an animal model of the subjective effects of drugs.
Operant Touch Screen
This tasks tests the ability of an animal to learn how to get reward by making specific responses to stimuli presented on a touch screen. The primary measure is the accuracy of how they touch the screen with their nose. There are several variants of this task, but the basic concept is that the animal must learn to touch the screen in response to a specific stimulus according to specific rules.
Sensorimotor
The following tests are designed to assess deficits and enhancements in Sensory and Motor functions in Mice and Rats.
Equipment
We understand that there are circumstances when it is not possible to move your animals to our facility at Franz Hall. Therefore, we offer the rental of some of our more mobile equipment for use in your own laboratory space.
The same services are available to you as if you were performing the experiment in our facility, including unsupervised research, training and full service staff performed research. The same rates apply as for experiments done within our facility.
Please remember that the location you will be performing the experiments must be listed in your ARC protocol and approved before beginning the experiment.
The following equipment is currently available to rent:
Rates
The UCLA Behavioral Testing Core is a user-supported core facility, supplemented through a UCLA Service Fund. Users are charged an hourly fee for all use of the Facility. Such uses include experimentation and computer analysis, as well as basic statistical analysis.
UCLA Researcher Rates: Behavioral Testing
| Use | Charge per Hour |
|---|---|
| Directly Supervised Research (Training Rate) | $90.00 |
| Unsupervised Research (Self-performed Rate) | $55.00 |
| BTC Staff-Performed Research (Full Service Rate) | $115.00 |
| Overtime Surcharge Fee (only applicable to Directly Supervised and BTC Staff-Performed Research) | $20 + regular hourly rate |
Outside Researcher Rates
| Use | Charge Per Hour |
|---|---|
| Directly Supervised | $120.00 |
| BTC Staff-Performed Research | $125.00 |
Other Service Rates
| Use | Charge Per Hour |
|---|---|
| Staff-Run Video/Statistical Analysis | $75 |
| Use of Behavior Tracking Software | $20 |
| Off-Peak Bulk Use Discount Rate | $25 |
| Optogenetics Ferule Implants | $20/EA; $25/EA for Rush Orders |