When performing novel object recognition test
some rats were doing well in the familiarization phase but did not move at all in the test phase when the novel object was added to the arena.
Those rats adhere to one corner of the arena however, other rats of the same experiment group move and explore the new object
what may be the reasons for this?
Dear Esraa Zakaria,
The lack of movement may be interpreted in several ways; however, from the work of Aubele et al. (2008), the three principal behaviors observed during open field test and object recognition tasks are categorized as ambulating, rearing or remaining stationary.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2008.04.001
As for the novel object recognition test, from Antunes & Biala (2012), “In several studies, when animals showed lack of exploration activity, they were excluded from the experiment (Bilsland et al. 2008; Clarke et al. 2010; Ennaceur and Delacour 1988; Reger et al. 2009; Taglialatela et al. 2009).”
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-011-0430-z
Dear Esraa Zakaria , it is important that each animal reaches a minimum amount of exploration time in order to evaluate reliably recognition memory. As pointed out by Firas Hasan Bazzari , animals that lack exploratory activity should be excluded from the experiment. Suggested cut-offs for exclusion are 8 seconds of total object exploration during the training phase and 6.5 seconds during the testing phase. See d'Isa, Brambilla and Fasano, 2014:
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