Author:
Birtalan Eszter,Bánhidi Anita,Sanders Joshua I.,Balázsfi Diána,Hangya Balázs
Abstract
AbstractExperiments aiming to understand sensory-motor systems, cognition and behavior necessitate training animals to perform complex tasks. Traditional training protocols require lab personnel to move the animals between home cages and training chambers, to start and end training sessions, and in some cases, to hand-control each training trial. Human labor not only limits the amount of training per day, but also introduces several sources of variability and may increase animal stress. Here we present an automated training system for the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5CSRTT), a classic rodent task often used to test sensory detection, sustained attention and impulsivity. We found that full automation without human intervention allowed rapid, cost-efficient training, and decreased stress as measured by corticosterone levels. Training breaks introduced only a transient drop in performance, and mice readily generalized across training systems when transferred from automated to manual protocols. We further validated our automated training system with wireless optogenetics and pharmacology experiments, expanding the breadth of experimental needs our system may fulfill. Our automated 5CSRTT system can serve as a prototype for fully automated behavioral training, with methods and principles transferrable to a range of rodent tasks.
Funder
Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
European Commission
Hungarian Scientific Research Fund
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference65 articles.
1. Solari, N., Sviatkó, K., Laszlovszky, T., Hegedüs, P. & Hangya, B. Open source tools for temporally controlled rodent behavior suitable for electrophysiology and optogenetic manipulations. Front. Syst. Neurosci. 12, 18 (2018).
2. Sorge, R. E. et al. Olfactory exposure to males, including men, causes stress and related analgesia in rodents. Nat. Methods 11, 629–632 (2014).
3. Davis, H., Taylor, A. & Norris, C. Preference for familiar humans by rats. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 4, 118–120 (1997).
4. van Driel, K. S. & Talling, J. C. Familiarity increases consistency in animal tests. Behav. Brain Res. 159, 243–245 (2005).
5. Karanicolas, P. J., Farrokhyar, F. & Bhandari, M. Practical tips for surgical research: Blinding: Who, what, when, why, how?. Can. J. Surg. 53, 345–348 (2010).
Cited by
10 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献