Effects of home-cage elevation on behavioral tests in mice

Research reproducibility is a common problem in preclinical behavioral science. Mice are an important animal model for studying human behavioral disorders. Experimenters, processing methods, and rearing environments are the main causes of data variability in behavioral neuroscience. It is likely that mice adapt their behavior according to the environment outside the breeding cage. We speculated that mice housed on elevated shelves and mice housed on low shelves might have differently altered anxiety-like behavior toward heights.

The purpose of this study was to investigate potential behavioral changes in mice raised at different heights for 3 weeks. Changes in behavior were examined using various experimental tests.

Mice housed on elevated shelves showed reduced anxiety-like behavior in a light/dark traffic test compared with mice housed on low shelves. There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of activity, exploratory behavior, muscle strength, or depression-like behavior.

Our results indicate that different cage heights and corresponding light exposure may alter the anxiety-like behavior of mice in response to brightness. Researchers need to carefully control the cage height and light intensity experienced by the mice to produce reproducible test results.