Name: the rodent psychomotor vigilance test (rpvt): a method for assessing neurobehavioral performance in rats and mice
Uploaded: 2016-12-29T12:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about The Rodent Psychomotor Vigilance Test RPVT: A Method for Assessing Neurobehavioral Performance in Rats and Mice Video at JoVE.com

This research was supported by NASA (NNX15AC17G to CMD), and by NASA cooperative agreement NCC 9-58 (E000010 to CMD, NBPF02802 and NBPF04201 to RDH) with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute.

Laboratory animal care was according to Public Health Service (PHS) Policy on the Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. All procedures were carried out in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Johns Hopkins University approved the protocol and all procedures. Johns Hopkins also maintains accreditation of their program by the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laborator...

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F. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Sleep,+circadian+rhythms,+and+psychomotor+vigilance.">Sleep, circadian rhythms, and psychomotor vigilance.</a> Clin Sports Med. 24 (2), 237-249 (2005).</li><li>Van Dongen, H. P., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Caffeine+eliminates+psychomotor+vigilance+deficits+from+sleep+inertia.">Caffeine eliminates psychomotor vigilance deficits from sleep inertia.</a> Sleep. 24 (7), 813-819 (2001).</li><li>Blatter, K., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Gender+and+age+differences+in+psychomotor+vigilance+performance+under+differential+sleep+pressure+conditions.">Gender and age differences in psychomotor vigilance performance under differential sleep pressure conditions.</a> Behav Brain Res. 168 (2), 312-317 (2006).</li><li>Lim, J., Dinges, D. F. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Sleep+deprivation+and+vigilant+attention.">Sleep deprivation and vigilant attention.</a> Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1129, 305-322 (2008).</li><li>Basner, M., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Mars+520-d+mission+simulation+reveals+protracted+crew+hypokinesis+and+alterations+of+sleep+duration+and+timing.">Mars 520-d mission simulation reveals protracted crew hypokinesis and alterations of sleep duration and timing.</a> Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 110, 2635-2640 (2013).</li><li>Christie, M. A., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Microdialysis+elevation+of+adenosine+in+the+basal+forebrain+produces+vigilance+impairments+in+the+rat+psychomotor+vigilance+task.">Microdialysis elevation of adenosine in the basal forebrain produces vigilance impairments in the rat psychomotor vigilance task.</a> Sleep. 31, 1393-1398 (2008).</li><li>Christie, M. A., McKenna, J. T., Connolly, N. P., McCarley, R. W., Strecker, R. E. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=24+hours+of+sleep+deprivation+in+the+rat+increases+sleepiness+and+decreases+vigilance:+introduction+of+the+rat-psychomotor+vigilance+task.">24 hours of sleep deprivation in the rat increases sleepiness and decreases vigilance: introduction of the rat-psychomotor vigilance task.</a> J. Sleep Res. 17, 376-384 (2008).</li><li>Oonk, M., Davis, C. J., Krueger, J. M., Wisor, J. P., Van Dongen, H. 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D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=A+rodent+model+of+the+human+psychomotor+vigilance+test:+Performance+comparisons.">A rodent model of the human psychomotor vigilance test: Performance comparisons.</a> J Neurosci Methods. 259, 57-71 (2016).</li><li>Lim, J., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Imaging+brain+fatigue+from+sustained+mental+workload:+an+ASL+perfusion+study+of+the+time-on-task+effect.">Imaging brain fatigue from sustained mental workload: an ASL perfusion study of the time-on-task effect.</a> Neuroimage. 49, 3426-3435 (2010).</li><li>Tucker, A. M., Basner, R. C., Stern, Y., Rakitin, B. 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S., Parasuraman, R., Matthews, G. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Vigilance+requires+hard+mental+work+and+is+stressful.">Vigilance requires hard mental work and is stressful.</a> Hum Factors. 50, 433-441 (2008).</li><li>Blatter, K., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Gender+and+age+differences+in+psychomotor+vigilance+performance+under+differential+sleep+pressure+conditions.">Gender and age differences in psychomotor vigilance performance under differential sleep pressure conditions.</a> Behav Brain Res. 168, 312-317 (2006).</li><li>Raymann, R. J., Van Someren, E. 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The methodology described herein results in rPVT performances in rats that compare favorably in many aspects to the typical PVT performance reported in the human literature. Using the present techniques, one can quickly train rats to perform the rPVT, and the performances obtained with these techniques are characterized by clear discriminations (i.e., high levels of correct responding, low levels of both premature responding and lapses). Further, the reaction time distributions obtained with the rPVT are quite s...

The human psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) is a widely used, well-validated tool for measuring vigilance and sustained attention in humans, and was originally developed by Dinges et al. 1-3 for assessing the stability in reaction times and attention (e.g., errors in terms of premature responses and lapses in attention), both within sessions as a whole and across time within individual sessions. Over the years, the human PVT has been modified and updated4-11 to track temporal changes in various aspects attention, and has been demonstrated to be sensitive to changes in sleep deprivation and fatigue, and is affected by drug use and age of subjects12,13. The PVT is a seemingly simple procedure in which a subject briefly touches a screen when a stimulus (typically an LED number display) appears randomly in time, typically after 2 - 10 s. In the human version, the number display is incremented in ms and stopped when the screen is touched, thus indicating the subject&#39;s reaction time (RT). Decreases in vigilance are indicated by 1) slowed reaction times, 2) an increase in lapses (termed &#34;errors of omission&#34; in the human literature, and usually defined as RTs that are &#62; 500 ms in length), and 3) an increase in premature responding (termed &#34;errors of commission&#34; or &#34;false starts&#34; in the human literature). Other measures can also be obtained with the PVT for examining such variables as gender and age differences; for a review of these measures, see Basner and Dinges4. Finally, the PVT has been employed in the general area of human risk assessment, and has been successfully used under a wide range of operational areas that include the military, aviation and railway industries, first responders, and extreme environments such as NASA&#39;s Extreme Environment Missions Operations (NEEMO), the international Mars500 Project14, and on the International Space Station (ISS). On the ISS, the PVT is called the &#34;Reaction Self-Test&#34; and is employed to provide astronauts with individualized fatigue-related feedback (e.g., changes in RTs or lapses in attention).
The human PVT has been in use for decades, as have rodent versions of simple reaction time tasks (which are somewhat similar). It has been only recently, however, that a direct rodent counterpart to the human PVT has been reported in the literature. Christie and colleagues described a version of the human PVT for rats, and reported decreases in vigilance following sleep deprivation15,16. Additional recent studies have reported versions of the rPVT17-19. These reports have described changes in sustained attention following various sleep deprivation techniques; however, the data from these studies have also reported high levels of premature responding (e.g., in some cases, more than 40% of the total number of responses); such performances are quite unlike any PVT performances with humans. Such a large difference in rodent vs. human performances are likely due to differences in specific parameters employed in the human vs. the rodent versions of the PVT; for example, the Christie et al. study employed a randomly varying 3 - 7 s foreperiod, while a human PVT normally employs a 2 - 10 s foreperiod (although see Basner et al.5 for a 3-min version of the human PVT that uses a 1 - 4 s foreperiod). The use of relatively short foreperiod values can often result in animals &#34;timing&#34; their responses, and thus can promote, via accidental reinforcement, increased numbers of premature responses, as have been reported in the current rodent rPVT studies.
The version of the rPVT described here is based on our previously published article20, and provides a detailed description of the techniques and procedures involved. It differs from previously published versions of the rPVT in the following respects: 1) rats were trained with variable foreperiod values of 3 - 10 s, and 2) rats had to respond quickly, since only responses within a short response window (also termed a &#34;limited hold&#34;) following stimulus onset were reinforced (1.5 s in the present study; 3.0 s in the previous published versions of the rPVT). Using these modifications as well as brief timeouts for incorrect responding resulted in greater levels of stimulus control, as indicated by significant improvements in accuracy and reduced levels of premature responding. The present report also describes predictable changes in performance variables (e.g., lapses in attention, RTs) that parallel those seen in humans when examining vigilance decrements21, and when examining other performance measures including the human &#34;time on task&#34; effect and the response-stimulus interval (RSI) effect that is observed in the human PVT22.
The final version of the rPVT described here begins by turning on a house light (see Figure 1). After a variable interval (foreperiod) of 3 - 10 s elapses, the nose-poke key is illuminated for a maximum of 1.5 s. (To insure an equal distribution of foreperiods durations, values are randomly generated without replacement from a list of 36 possible values that range from 3 to 10 s, based on 200 ms increments.) Illumination of the nosepoke key is the signal for an animal to respond, and a response that occurs between 150 to 1,500 ms following the light onset is reinforced with a 45-mg pellet. After a reinforced response, both the nose-poke key light and the house light are turned off and a 1 s inter-trial interval (ITI; house light off) ensues. Nose-pokes at before light onset produce an 8 s timeout (TO) from the experimental contingencies that is signaled by extinguishing the house light. If no responses occur within the 1.5 s response window, both the nosepoke light and house light are turned off, and a 1 s ITI ensues. The next scheduled foreperiod value for the subsequent trial begins after either the 1 s ITI or the 8 s TO, whichever occurred during the prior trial. Sessions are conducted daily (5 days/week), normally consist of about 200 trials, and end after 30 min. This results with each trial having a duration of about 7.5 s, on average.
Shaping stable baseline performance on the rPVT is accomplished by 1) initially adapting a rat to take food pellets out of the food tray in the chamber, 2) hand-shaping a rat to respond on a nose poke key by reinforcing successive approximations to the final nose poke response, and 3) conducting daily sessions where the parameters of the rPVT procedure (i.e., foreperiod, ITI, TO, and key-illumination times) are gradually adjusted over a session, depending on how well each rat is performing during each session (described in detail below).

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			<td height="84" style="height:84px;width:315px;">PC computer with PCI card slot</td>
			<td style="width:71px;">Any manfacturer (e.g., Dell)</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>Use of the PCI operating package requires a computer with a PCI card slot. Systems that use PCIe are available. Contact Med Associates for details.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="210">
			<td height="210" style="height:210px;width:315px;">Dustless Precision pellets 45-mg rodent grain-based diet</td>
			<td style="width:71px;">Bio Serv</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">FO165</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">Bio-Serv 
			One 8th Street, Suite 1 
			Frenchtown, NJ 08825, USA 
			Phone: (800)-996-9908;&#160;&#160; Standard chow pellets are commonly used. Different pellets (e.g., sucrose) can be acquired from Bio Serv.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

the rodent psychomotor vigilance test (rpvt): a method for assessing neurobehavioral performance in rats and mice

The human Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) is a widely used procedure for measuring changes in fatigue and sustained attention. The present article describes a rodent version of the PVT&#8212;termed the &#34;rPVT&#34;&#8212;that measures similar aspects of attention (i.e., performance accuracy, motor speed, premature responding, and lapses in attention). Data are presented that demonstrate both the short- and long-term usefulness of the rPVT when employed with laboratory rats. Rats easily learn the rPVT, and learning to perform the basic procedure takes less than two weeks of training. Once acquired, rat performances in the rPVT show a high degree of similarity to these same performance measures in the human PVT, including similarities in, lapses in attention, reaction times, vigilance decrements across session time (i.e., the human &#34;time-on-task&#34; effects), and the response-stimulus interval (RSI) effect described for humans. Thus the rPVT can be an extremely valuable tool for assessing the effects of a wide range of variables on sustained attention quite similar to human PVT performances, and thus can be useful for developing novel treatments for neurobehavioral dysfunctions.

Baseline Rat rPVT Performances
With the parameters detailed here, 86.7% of the 122 male rats reached the final rPVT parameters within an average of 9.0 (SD = 10.13; n = 122) computer-automated training sessions (described in 4.1 - 4.9 rPVT Training; in our experience, only approximately 2% of rats will not acquire the rPVT). Using the current methodology, rats averaged 73.4% correct responding, 18.6% lapses in attention, and 10.6% ...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about The Rodent Psychomotor Vigilance Test RPVT: A Method for Assessing Neurobehavioral Performance in Rats and Mice Video at JoVE.com

The Rodent Psychomotor Vigilance Test RPVT: A Method for Assessing Neurobehavioral Performance in Rats and Mice Video (Video) | JoVE

A rat version of the human Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) is described that measures aspects of attention similar to those measured with the human PVT, including aspects of human vigilance such as performance accuracy, motor speed, premature responding, and lapses in attention.

The Rodent Psychomotor Vigilance Test (rPVT): A Method for Assessing Neurobehavioral Performance in Rats and Mice

The human Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) is a widely used procedure for measuring changes in fatigue and sustained attention. The present article ...

Research

JoVE Journal

Behavior

The Successive Alleys Test of Anxiety in Mice and Rats

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The plus-maze was derived from the early work of Montgomery. He observed that rats tended to avoid the open arms of a maze, preferring the enclosed ones.  ...

Contextual and Cued Fear Conditioning Test Using a Video Analyzing System in Mice

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Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe and progressive muscle wasting disorder for which no cure is available. Nevertheless, several potential ...

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In many situations humans are influenced by the behavior of other people and their relationships with them. For example, in stressful situations ...

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A Method to Test the Effect of Environmental Cues on Mating Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster Video (Video) | JoVE

An individual's sexual drive is influenced by genotype, experience and environmental conditions. How these factors interact to modulate sexual behaviors ...

Novel Object Recognition Test for the Investigation of Learning and Memory in Mice

Novel Object Recognition Test for the Investigation of Learning and Memory in Mice Video (Video) | JoVE

The object recognition test (ORT) is a commonly used behavioral assay for the investigation of various aspects of learning and memory in mice. The ORT is ...

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The Knob Supination Task: A Semi-automated Method for Assessing Forelimb Function in Rats Video (Video) | JoVE

Tasks that accurately measure dexterity in animal models are critical to understand hand function. Current rat behavioral tasks that measure dexterity ...

A New Method for Inducing a Depression-Like Behavior in Rats

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