SANS Sucrose Preference Test

• Assessment of anhedonia and depression-like behaviors
• Drug screening and evaluation in neuroscience / behavioral pharmacology
• Studies of reward system dysfunction, motivation loss and emotional state changes
• Research in metabolism, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular or transgenic models where sucrose preference may reflect underlying pathophysiology
• Toxicology and long-term behavioural monitoring where drinking behaviour is a metric

However, during the manual Sucrose Preference Test, researchers often encounter the following series of problems:

In terms of Operation:

1. Manual operation is cumbersome

In manual operation, researchers need to frequently change the sucrose water bottles and clear water bottles. 
After each bottle change, thorough cleaning and disinfection are also required to prevent cross-contamination. 

2. Lack of real-time monitoring

Manual methods cannot provide real-time information on the animals’ drinking behavior. Researchers can only check the scale changes of the bottles at certain intervals (such as every few hours or daily) to estimate the animals’ water intake. 

3. Difficult to operate multiple channels simultaneously

When conducting sucrose water preference experiments on multiple groups of animals simultaneously, manual techniques find it hard to achieve synchronized operation. This significantly reduces the repeatability of the experiment and the comparability of the data.

In terms of Data accuracy:

1. Large data deviations and errors.

Manual reading of the scale to measure the consumption of liquid is prone to errors. 

2. Interference with animal stress responses

In manual experiments, animals need to be frequently removed from their cages for operations such as weighing or changing water bottles. These operations can cause stress responses in animals, for instance, mice may exhibit behavioral changes such as anxiety and reduced activity. 

3. Lack of detail data

Conventional or manual sucrose preference test can only provide relatively simple data, such as the total consumption of sugar water and pure water. However, more detailed data on drinking behavior, such as the duration of each drinking episode, the intervals between drinks, and changes in drinking preferences at different times of the day, cannot be obtained. 

SANS automatic sucrose preference test uses the micro injection pump for water supply and has the advantages of real-time statistics, automation, and high accuracy. It significantly improves the efficiency of drug research and basic life science research, and fundamentally reduces data deviations and errors caused by manual operations.