Visual-looming Shadow Task with in-vivo Calcium Activity Monitoring to Assess Defensive Behaviors in Mice

There has been a clear movement in recent years towards the adoption of more naturalistic experimental regimes for the study of behavior and its underlying neural architecture. Here we provide a protocol that allows experimenters working with mice, to mimic a looming and advancing predatory threat from the sky. This approach is easy to implement and can be combined with sophisticated neural recordings that allow access to real-time activity during behavior. This approach offers another option in a battery of tests that allow for a more comprehensive understanding of defensive behaviors.