I need to conduct open field and morris water maze on groups of mice. If I do open field in the morning, can I do morris water maze in the afternoon, or will that interfere?
Thanks!
It is advisable to keep an interval of 24h between the open-field and the MWM. If you can't avoid carrying out the two tests on the same day, then perform the open-field in a session before MWM. Never do the opposite, since the stress induced by the forced swimming in the MWM would affect the anxiety levels in the open-field.
I would also separate them. I would give the mice 24 h to recover from the open field. But test the open field before you'll perform the MWM, always start with the least stressful test and continue with increasing stressful tests.
Open field first with a day between is ideal. Not sure how you would even fit in both tests in the same day unless you have such a small sample that it would possibly not even be worth doing. In practice I have not found that open field exposure substantially changes water maze behavior compared to subject that were naive. Open field exposure is useful with about 6-15 duration in most cases - longer than that they don't move much anyway (in normal, adult C57 mice or normal adult rats)
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