Coding of Facial Expressions of Pain in the Laboratory Mouse

Overview

Journal Nat Methods

Specialties Biomedical Engineering
Pathology

Date 2010 May 11

PMID 20453868

Citations 585

Authors

Dale J Langford

Andrea L Bailey

Mona Lisa Chanda

Sarah E Clarke

Tanya E Drummond

Stephanie Echols

Sarah Glick

Joelle Ingrao

Tammy Klassen-Ross

Michael L LaCroix-Fralish

Lynn Matsumiya

Robert E Sorge

Susana G Sotocinal

John M Tabaka

David Wong

Arn M J M van den Maagdenberg

Michel D Ferrari

Kenneth D Craig

Jeffrey S Mogil

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Facial expression is widely used as a measure of pain in infants; whether nonhuman animals display such pain expressions has never been systematically assessed. We developed the mouse grimace scale (MGS), a standardized behavioral coding system with high accuracy and reliability; assays involving noxious stimuli of moderate duration are accompanied by facial expressions of pain. This measure of spontaneously emitted pain may provide insight into the subjective pain experience of mice.

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