Chronic mild stress

Briefly, the mice were subjected to several different stressors per day at different times of the day to avoid habituation. The stressors included food deprivation (12 h), empty water bottles (12 h), restraint (2 h), lights-off for 3 h during the daylight phase, cage shaking (1 h), cage tilting (45M/M, 24 h), reversal of the light–dark cycle (24 h), strobe light (12 h), clip tail (10 min), damp bedding (24 h) and soiled cage (24 h). This chronic mild stress (CMS) paradigm was used over a 4 week period and consisted of daily exposure to 2–3 of the above-mentioned stressors in random order.