{"Equipment":"Any equipment allowing shock delivery with mice observation: it is recommended to use the same equipment used for other tasks requiring footshocks (e.g. fear conditioning cages; the ICS use Coulbourn equipment","Data QC":"","Procedure":"General design:
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  1. Footshock is manually applied for 1s, and behavioral responses noted. Shock levels begin at 0.05 mA (start with lowest intensity possible by your equipment) and increase by 0.05mA steps with at least 30s interval between 2 shocks until both flinch (any detectable response) and vocalization are induced. After this point shocks are increased by 0.1mA steps until a jump is induced. A 1mA cut-off is employed in this test.
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\r\nTesting:
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  1. Turn on Shockers of the different testing cages.
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  2. Check that the shockers are working properly.
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  3. Set the shock intensity to the lowest value (0.05mA for example).
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  4. Put the first mice in each cage, start the timer.
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  5. After 30 seconds habituation, deliver manually the footshock (0.05 mA) to the first mouse and observe carefully its reaction.
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  6. Go to the second cage.
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  7. Test the second mice in the same way with the lowest intensity.
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  8. Return to the first mouse and test the second shock intensity (0.1 mA).
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  9. Respect an interval of at least 30 seconds between 2 shocks.
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  10. Follow this procedure increasing the shock intensity by 0.05 mA step until you see a flinch (any reaction indicating that the mouse has felt the shock).
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  11. Write down the shock intensity that produces this reaction in your worksheet.
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  12. Carry on again the testing in the same way until the mouse emits vocalization.
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  13. Write down the shock intensity.
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  14. Once you reach the lowest intensity that produces vocalization, increase the shock intensity by 0.1 mA step until you see a jump.
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  15. Stop the test once the mouse displays a jump or when you reach 1mA.
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Males and females must be run in separate tests; ideally males are tested first, then followed by females.","Purpose":"This procedure is used to assess pain sensitivity to electrical footshock. This is useful to verifiy the specific of effects observed in procedures using foot-shocks (e.g. aversive learning tasks). ","Experimental Design":""}