Five-Trial Social Memory Test

The Five-Trial Social Memory test assesses cognition, namely the ability to recognize novel versus familiar animals, in rodent models of CNS disorders. Over the course of multiple exposures, rodents will become habituated to intruders and no longer find them as interesting as a completely novel intruder.

During testing, the subject is given four brief exposures in its home cage to the same intruder. In the fifth trial, the subject encounters an entirely novel intruder. All test trials are videotaped and subsequently analyzed for total body investigation, anogenital investigation, perioral investigation, body investigation, grooming behavior, sexual interaction, and otherwise undefined interaction. This test is useful in identifying social amnesia in transgenic mice exhibiting autistic symptoms or other social interaction deficits, as well as in identifying novel chemical entities affecting social memory.