Name: a fully automated and highly versatile system for testing multi-cognitive functions and recording neuronal activities in rodents
Uploaded: 2012-05-03T12:00:00
Duration: 9 min 13 s
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Fully Automated and Highly Versatile System for Testing Multi-cognitive Functions and Recording Neuronal Activities in Rodents at JoVE.com

This work was supported by the Neurosciences Research Foundation and grants from The Blasker-Rose-Miah Fund of The San Diego Foundation and The G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation.

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Production and Free Access of this video-article is sponsored by Med Associates, Inc.

A critical aspect in design of any auditory behavioral task is elimination of unwanted sounds resulting from scattering and deflection in the test environment. Poor sound control can have a significant effect on the behavior being tested and will produce misleading or even uninterpretable results. The behavioral chamber used in the system described here is specifically designed to be acoustically transparent in order to avoid sound deflection from the chamber walls. Indeed, when measured from the center of the chamber, sound deflection was effectively undetectable (data not shown).
Although we developed this system mainly for studying the auditory system, it can be easily adapted by other researchers to study other sensory systems. Modifications can be made easily on both software and hardware for different tasks without changing the overall configuration of the system. The modular operation panel makes the system particularly versatile by allowing for addition and/or substitution of different devices for new behavioral tasks. For instance, olfactory behavioral tasks can be implanted by delivering olfactory stimulus into the nose poke device. The five choice illuminated nose poke wall with olfactory stimulus from the MED Associates (ENV-115A-OF) can be easily installed on the operation panel for complex olfactory tasks. In addition, all the operant devices can be easily replaced with those that are designed for mice without changing the configuration of the system.
Precise temporal control of each operant device, as well as high resolution recording of single events in a given trial, enable accurate manipulation of the devices for customizing the design of behavioral tasks to address different cognitive brain functions (see below). When combined with neuronal activity recording, a rich variety of issues in the field of neurosciences can be studied with this system. For instance, in the auditory task described above, the following questions related to brain cognitive functions can be investigated in a single trial:
(1). Motivation: Since each trial is initiated by animal's "self-motivated" nose-poke action (Figure 5A-a and Figure 3), motivation can thus be assessed quantitatively by measuring the total number of trials performed by an animal in a given session, or the number of consecutive trials performed6,7.
(2). Attention: The key for obtaining a reward in a trial is to correctly recognize the auditory cues. In about 25% of rats that could not be trained to perform the task, lack of attending to the auditory cues was the major factor. In contrast, in the rats who learned the task, a momentary pause of behaviors was apparent during auditory cue presentation (see Figure 5A-b and Figure 3). By using this system, it is thus possible to (i) screen rats for "attention deficits" and (ii) study neural mechanisms of attention when combined with neuronal recordings while the animal is attending to the auditory cues8-10.
(3). Decision: Upon recognition of the auditory cues, the animal has to decide which direction to turn to approach the correct lever within a limited time window (Figure 5A-c). It is thus also an effective paradigm for studying decision-making11,12.
(4). Patience: The timing of lever extension can be controlled such that the animal has to wait for the lever after arriving at the spot where the lever will extend (Figure 5A-d). By varying the length of waiting, the extent of an animal's patience can be tested and quantified13.
(5). Rewards: The final goal of the task is to obtain the reward (Figure 5A-e and Figure 3). Behavioral tasks using this system can thus be easily designed to study many aspects of reward-decision issues and the function of the value systems of the brain14-17.

a fully automated and highly versatile system for testing multi-cognitive functions and recording neuronal activities in rodents

We have developed a fully automated system for operant behavior testing and neuronal activity recording by which multiple cognitive brain functions can be investigated in a single task sequence. The unique feature of this system is a custom-made, acoustically transparent chamber that eliminates many of the issues associated with auditory cue control in most commercially available chambers. The ease with which operant devices can be added or replaced makes this system quite versatile, allowing for the implementation of a variety of auditory, visual, and olfactory behavioral tasks. Automation of the system allows fine temporal (10 ms) control and precise time-stamping of each event in a predesigned behavioral sequence. When combined with a multi-channel electrophysiology recording system, multiple cognitive brain functions, such as motivation, attention, decision-making, patience, and rewards, can be examined sequentially or independently.

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Fully Automated and Highly Versatile System for Testing Multi-cognitive Functions and Recording Neuronal Activities in Rodents at JoVE.com

A Fully Automated and Highly Versatile System for Testing Multi-cognitive Functions and Recording Neuronal Activities in Rodents

In this report, we present a fully automated and highly versatile system capable of simultaneously testing multi-cognitive behaviors and recording neuronal activities for rodents.

We have developed a fully automated system for operant behavior testing and neuronal activity recording by which multiple cognitive brain functions can be ...

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