What is the Hole Board Device?

The Ugo Basile Hole Board Device (catalog numbers 6650/46653) is a classic behavioural apparatus for assessing natural curiosity, exploratory drive, and anxiety-related behaviour in rodents using the Boissier-Simon method. Animals are placed on a board containing 16 equidistant holes and allowed to freely explore; the number of head-dips (nose-pokes into the holes) serves as an index of exploratory behaviour and neophilia.

The test requires no prior training, is completed in minutes, and is sensitive to the effects of anxiolytic and anxiogenic drugs, making it a rapid screening tool in psychopharmacology. The device is available in mouse (40×40 cm) and rat (1×1 m) versions, with opaque or transparent walls for compatibility with overhead or side-mounted video tracking.

Key Features

• 16-Hole Board Layout: The standardised arrangement of 16 holes in a grey Perspex board follows the validated Boissier-Simon protocol, enabling direct comparison with published literature.
• Non-Reflective Anti-Glare Finish: The matte surface minimises light reflections that would otherwise reduce video tracking accuracy or cause uneven illumination across the arena.
• Mouse & Rat Versions: Dedicated sizing for each species ensures the hole dimensions and spacing are scaled appropriately for natural head-dipping behaviour.
• Opaque or Transparent Walls: Choose opaque walls for standard exploration testing or transparent walls when lateral video tracking cameras are used.
• No Training Required: Animals are tested naïve to the apparatus, making the hole board one of the fastest behavioural phenotyping assays in the laboratory workflow.
• Video Tracking Compatible: The open arena design is fully compatible with overhead and side-mounted automated video tracking systems.
• Easy Assembly & Cleaning: The modular Perspex construction disassembles for thorough cleaning between animals and cohorts.

Research Applications

The Hole Board test occupies a unique niche in the behavioural neuroscience toolkit as a rapid, training-free assay that simultaneously captures exploration, anxiety, and attention. Head-dipping frequency is reduced by anxiogenic stimuli and increased by anxiolytic drugs, while the spatial pattern of hole investigation can reveal attentional or memory-related biases.

• Anxiolytic Drug Screening: Hole-dipping frequency is reliably increased by benzodiazepines and other anxiolytic compounds, making the Hole Board a sensitive, rapid screening assay in psychopharmacology.
• Anxiety & Stress Models: Reduced exploration on the Hole Board is a validated readout of heightened anxiety in stress-exposed, fear-conditioned, or CRF-overexpressing animals.
• Attentional Set-Shifting & Spatial Memory: Repeated testing with the same board reveals whether animals form a spatial search strategy (visiting a consistent subset of holes), providing a non-operant measure of spatial attention.
• Psychostimulant & Drug Abuse Research: Stimulants such as amphetamine increase hole-dipping hyperactivity, while withdrawal states produce marked hypo-exploration.
• Genetic Model Phenotyping: The Hole Board provides a rapid exploratory phenotype screen for transgenic and knockout mouse lines, complementing open-field and elevated-plus-maze data.
• Ageing & Cognitive Decline: Age-related reductions in exploratory curiosity are captured as declining hole-dip frequency, providing a behavioural correlate of frontal cortical and hippocampal aging.