MouseGenetics Forum > Behavioral Testing Thread: "Baseline anxiety way too high in open field test - even controls barely move" --- Post #1 by behavior_grad_student --- Running open field tests on a C57BL/6J cohort (both WT controls and our mutant line) and even the WT controls are showing what looks like really high baseline anxiety — minimal center time, mostly thigmotaxis (hugging the walls), very little exploration overall. This is making it hard to see any meaningful difference between genotypes since everyone's baseline is already so high.

The hack / solution

Room lighting is standard overhead fluorescent, mice are brought straight from the housing room to the testing room right before each trial. Switching to 60-min acclimation plus dim (10-20 lux) lighting made a huge difference for us — WT controls started showing normal center-time exploration instead of near-total thigmotaxis, and our genotype effects became clearly visible again.

📎Source: behavioral_anxiety_open_field.txt

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