No abstract

A comprehensive understanding of how the brain responds to a changing environment requires techniques capable of recording functional outputs at the whole-brain level in response to external stimuli. Positron emission tomography (PET) is an exquisitely sensitive technique for imaging brain function but the need for anaesthesia to avoid motion artefacts precludes concurrent behavioural response studies. Here, we report a technique that combines motion-compensated PET with a robotically-controlled animal enclosure to enable simultaneous brain imaging and behavioural recordings in unrestrained small animals. The technique was used to measure in vivo displacement of [ 11 C]raclopride from dopamine D2 receptors (D2R) concurrently with changes in the behaviour of awake, freely moving rats following administration of unlabelled raclopride or amphetamine. The timing and magnitude of [ 11 C]raclopride displacement from D2R were reliably estimated and, in the case of amphetamine, these changes coincided with a marked increase in stereotyped behaviours and hyper-locomotion. The technique, therefore, allows simultaneous measurement of changes in brain function and behavioural responses to external stimuli in conscious unrestrained animals, giving rise to important applications in behavioural neuroscience.

Dual tasking during treatment using the DAS-D appears to be a viable clinical procedure. Further research is required to establish effectiveness.

In field and pool sports, players' running or swimming motor patterns appear to characterise them, and these ‘gait signatures' may aid in identifying players as team-mates. If this identification process was sufficiently brief to be relevant in ball sports, training to improve familiarity with team-mates' movement patterns may improve team performance. We examined time for Team-Mate Identification (TM-ID) decisions under different circumstances. 6 water-polo players (team-mate participants) and 6 club swimmers (unknown distractors) were filmed sprint swimming past two video cameras, one above and one below the water surface. The resulting footage was edited into two randomised series of video-clips. The water-polo players then viewed the clips and determined whether each observed swimmer was a team-mate or not, in the fastest possible time. Participants were faster with an overwater than an underwater view, significantly better than chance at identifying their team-mates, and did so in a mean time of 381 ms, which is within the normal window of time where expert sports people might be required to make time-stressed decisions.

No abstract