We studied how the sex of human experimenters affected mouse behaviors and brain functions under normal conditions and in the context of ketamine administration. Identifying such unknown unknowns was critical to understanding how, specifically and quantitatively, they affected experimental outcomes, which led to fresh insight into ketamine’s mechanism as an antidepressant drug.
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References
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This is a summary of: Georgiou, P. et al. Experimenters’ sex modulates mouse behaviors and neural responses to ketamine via corticotropin releasing factor. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01146-x (2022).
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Inconvenient truths and the usefulness of identifying unknown unknowns. Nat Neurosci 25, 1122–1123 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01147-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01147-w