Source Paper
Cognitive neurobehavior and synaptic plasticity after vagus nerve stimulation in female rats: Interaction between estrous cycle and neurostimulation
Olsen LK, Jones KA, Sharma B, Ethridge VT, Gargas NM et al.
Bioelectron Med • 2026
Novel Object Recognition (NOR)
Objective: To detect changes in recognition memory
This is a Novel Object Recognition (NOR) protocol using Rat as the model organism. The procedure involves 7 procedural steps, 2 equipment items, 3 materials. Extracted from a 2026 paper published in Bioelectron Med.
Model and subjects
Rat • Sprague-Dawley • Female • 10-12 weeks • 44
Study window
~1 day study window
Core workflow
Training day object exposure • Object placement • 24-hour delay period
Primary readouts
- Novel object preference calculated as N_novel/(N_novel + N_familiar)
- Time spent exploring novel object
- Time spent exploring familiar object
Key equipment and reagents
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Protocol Steps
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Training day object exposure
Rats are exposed to two similar objects for three minutes after two minutes of arena habituation
View evidence from paper
“Rats were exposed to two similar objects for three min”
Object placement
Objects are placed on opposing sides of the arena 47 cm apart
View evidence from paper
“Objects were placed on opposing sides of the arenas 47 cm apart”
24-hour delay period
Wait 24 hours between training and testing
View evidence from paper
“After 24 h, rats were exposed to the same object and a novel object”
Elevated Zero Maze exposure
On testing day, rats are exposed to Elevated Zero Maze for five minutes prior to NOR testing
View evidence from paper
“Rats were also exposed to the Elevated Zero Maze paradigm for five min prior to the beginning of NOR object exposure on testing day only”
Testing day habituation
Rats habituate to the arena for two minutes before object exposure
View evidence from paper
“On training day and testing day, rats habituated to the arena for two min prior to object exposure”
Testing day object exposure
Rats are exposed to one familiar object and one novel object for three minutes
View evidence from paper
“rats were exposed to the same object and a novel object for three min”
Behavioral tracking
Object exploration activity is monitored using nose-point tracking within defined object spaces
View evidence from paper
“The amount of time the animal's nose-point was within the novel or familiar object space was used as a proxy”