Marble Burying Anxiety

It is based on the observation that rats and mice will bury either harmful or harmless objects in their bedding.

Marble burying anxiety.

The marble burying behavior test is an acute test. The marble burying test is used to record the number of marbles buried by mice placed in a novel environment. It has also been proposed that the test may have predictive validity for the screening of novel antidepressants 12 15 anxiolytics 15 16 and antipsychotics 17 19. Marble burying is an animal model used in scientific research to depict anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder ocd behavior.

Mice which are placed individually in a cage bury glass marbles that are present in the cage. It has been shown to be sensitive to benzodiazepines as these compounds reduce burying behaviour when. However some investigators incorporate the sub acute treatment regimen as an essential component for screening anti compulsive agents. This test has some predictive value for anti depressant and or anxiolytic drugs.

While widely used there is significant controversy over the interpretation of its results. However modulation of marble burying by serotonin reuptake inhibitors prompted its link to obsessive compulsive disorder compulsive like behavior. When put in a cage with marbles mice with ocd like symptoms tend to engage in a high degree of repetitive behaviors including digging while mice with a high degree of anxiety tend to engage in a high degree of digging in.