Anxiety – Marble Burying
Marble burying is used as a quick, simple, high throughput test with predictive validity for pharmacologically active CNS compounds such as anxiolytics and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). It is also sometimes used as a model for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Mice are placed individually in clean mouse cages containing hard wood bedding. Marbles are placed in each cage in evenly spaced rows. Mice pretreated with pharmacological agents such as anxiolytics show decreased marble burying behavior, compared to the control mice
The benzodiazepines chlordiazepoxide (15 mg/kg; ip) and diazepam (2 mg/kg; ip) attenuate marble-burying behavior in C57BL/6J mice.
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The mGluR5 receptor antagonist 2-Methyl-6-phenylethynylpyridine (MPEP, 20 mg/kg; ip) attenuates marble-burying behavior in C57BL/6J mice.
The serotonin 5-HT1A receptor agonist buspirone (5 and 10 mg/kg; ip) attenuates marble-burying behavior in C57BL/6J mice.
Pretreatment with the serotonin 5-HT1A receptor agonists buspirone (15 mg/kg; ip) or 8-OH-DPAT (2 mg/kg; i.p.) decreases marble burying in C57BL/6J mice. This effect can be reversed with the serotonin 5-HT1A receptor antagonist WAY100635.
