No. 2 Middle School of Shijiazhuang 1 article published in JoVE Neuroscience Direct Intrathecal Injection of Recombinant Adeno-associated Viruses in Adult Mice Dongxiao Li*1, Yundu Li*2, Yunyun Tian1, Zuoshang Xu3, Yansu Guo1,4 1Department of Neurology, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, 2No.2 Middle School of Shijiazhuang, 3Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 4Key Laboratory of Hebei Neurology Here we present a direct intrathecal injection technique using 1% lidocaine hydrochloride in a viral solution to ensure efficient adeno-associated virus delivery to small animals and establish a scoring system to predict transduction efficiency in the central nervous system according to the degree of transient weakness induced by lidocaine.