Evaluating Skilled Prehension in Mice Using an Auto-Trainer

Hubbard, Robert P.; Dunthorn, Jason; O’Brien, Richard; Tasch, Dan; Tasch, U.; Zeiler, Steven R.

doi:10.3791/59784

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Because of these challenges, there has been great interest in automating the training process with hopes of increasing throughput and minimizing variability. Several studies have shown that automated training is in fact feasible and has measurable benefits ( Fenrich et al, 2015 ; Ellens et al, 2016 ; Gu et al, 2017 ; Torres-Espín et al, 2018 ; Hubbard et al, 2019 ). For example, presenting pellets using a motorized delivery arm reduced variability in success rate between and within experiments compared with manually presented pellets ( Torres-Espín et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Home-Cage Automated Skilled Reaching Apparatus (HASRA): Individualized Training of Group-Housed Mice in a Single Pellet Reaching Task

Salameh

Jeffers

et al. 2020

eNeuro

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The single pellet reaching task is commonly used in rodents to assess the acquisition of fine motor skill and recovery of function following nervous system injury. Although this task is useful for gauging skilled forelimb use in rodents, the process of training animals is labor intensive and variable across studies and labs. To address these limitations, we developed a single pellet reaching paradigm for training and testing group housed mice within their home cage. Mice enter a training compartment attached to the outside of the cage and retrieve millet seeds presented on a motorized pedestal that can be individually positioned to present seeds to either forelimb. To identify optimal training parameters, we compared task participation and success rates between groups of animals that were presented seeds at two different heights (floor vs mouth height) and at different intervals (fixed-time vs trial-based). The mouth height/fixed interval presentation style was most effective at promoting reaching behavior as all mice reached for seeds within 5 d. Using this paradigm, we assessed stroke-induced deficits in home-cage reaching. Following three weeks of baseline training, reaching success rate was ∼40%, with most trials performed during the dark cycle. A forelimb motor cortex stroke significantly decreased interaction with presented seeds within the first 2 d and impaired reaching success rates for the first 7 d. Our data demonstrate that group-housed mice can be efficiently trained on a single pellet reaching task in the home cage and that this assay is sensitive to stroke induced motor impairments.

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