An Automated Behavioral Apparatus to Assess Distal Forelimb Function in Non-Human Primates

Totten, Douglas; Novik, L; Christe, Kari L.; Lemoy, Marie Josee; Roberts, Jeffrey A.; Carmena, Jose M.; Morecraft, Robert J.; Ganguly, Karunesh

doi:10.1101/396572

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, our system can easily be adapted to include cues or dynamic external force fields, and group housing with radio frequency identification-tagged animals can allow for a four-to fivefold increase in training capacity for the same amount of hardware (Silasi et al 2018). The system could also be rendered more compatible with electrophysiology by adding electronics to mitigate potential cross-talk between the capacitive touch sensor and neurophysiological signals (Totten et al 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated home cage training of mice in a hold-still center-out reach task

Bollu

Whitehead

Prasad

et al. 2019

Journal of Neurophysiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An obstacle to understanding neural mechanisms of movement is the complex, distributed nature of the mammalian motor system. Here we present a novel behavioral paradigm for high-throughput dissection of neural circuits underlying mouse forelimb control. Custom touch-sensing joysticks were used to quantify mouse forelimb trajectories with micron-millisecond spatiotemporal resolution. Joysticks were integrated into computer-controlled, rack-mountable home cages, enabling batches of mice to be trained in parallel. Closed loop behavioral analysis enabled online control of reward delivery for automated training. We used this system to show that mice can learn, with no human handling, a direction-specific hold-still center-out reach task in which a mouse first held its right forepaw still before reaching out to learned spatial targets. Stabilogram diffusion analysis of submillimeter-scale micromovements produced during the hold demonstrate that an active control process, akin to upright balance, was implemented to maintain forepaw stability. Trajectory decomposition methods, previously used in primates, were used to segment hundreds of thousands of forelimb trajectories into millions of constituent kinematic primitives. This system enables rapid dissection of neural circuits for controlling motion primitives from which forelimb sequences are built. NEW & NOTEWORTHY A novel joystick design resolves mouse forelimb kinematics with micron-millisecond precision. Home cage training is used to train mice in a hold-still center-out reach task. Analytical methods, previously used in primates, are used to decompose mouse forelimb trajectories into kinematic primitives.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%