Who's your neighbour? Tracking social choice

Mice are sociable, and the three-chamber test lets them show it. One side holds an unfamiliar mouse under a cup; the other holds an empty cup or an object. A second phase brings in a new stranger to test social novelty preference. This JoVE protocol walks through the set-up.

What tracking picks up

• Time in each chamber.
• Time in a sniffing zone around each cup, a sharper measure than chamber time.
• Entries, and how quickly the animal makes its first approach.

Field notes

• Swap the stranger's side from one animal to the next.
• Use nose-point tracking for sniffing zones where you can.
• Let the test animal get used to the empty apparatus first.