Rodents are an appropriate model to investigate the molecular substrates of behavior and complex psychiatric disorders. Brain microinjection in awake rodents can be used to elucidate disease substrates. An efficient and customizable brain microinjection method as well as the execution of an operant paradigm that quantifies motivation is presented.
Poland, R. S., Bull, C., Syed, W. A., Bowers, M. S. Rodent Brain Microinjection to Study Molecular Substrates of Motivated Behavior. J. Vis. Exp. (103), e53018, doi:10.3791/53018 (2015).