Neurosciences Commons^™

Context-Dependent Egr1 Expression In The Avian Hippocampus., Stephanie L Grella, Mélanie F Guigueno, David J White, David F Sherry, Diano F Marrone

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

In mammals, episodic memory and spatial cognition involve context-specific recruitment of unique ensembles in the hippocampal formation (HF). Despite their capacity for sophisticated spatial (e.g., for migration) and episodic-like (e.g., for food-caching) memory, the mechanisms underlying contextual representation in birds is not well understood. Here we demonstrate environment-specific Egr1 expression as male brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) navigate environments for food reward, showing that the avian HF, like its mammalian counterpart, recruits distinct neuronal ensembles to represent different contexts.

Selective Vip Receptor Agonists Facilitate Immune Transformation For Dopaminergic Neuroprotection In Mptp-Intoxicated Mice., Katherine E. Olson, Lisa M. Kosloski-Bilek, Kristi M. Anderson, Breha J. Diggs, Barbara E. Clark, John M. Gledhill, Scott J. Shandler, R. Lee Mosley, Howard Gendelman

Journal Articles: Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience

UNLABELLED: Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) mediates a broad range of biological responses by activating two related receptors, VIP receptor 1 and 2 (VIPR1 and VIPR2). Although the use of native VIP facilitates neuroprotection, clinical application of the hormone is limited due to VIP's rapid metabolism and inability to distinguish between VIPR1 and VIPR2 receptors. In addition, activation of both receptors by therapeutics may increase adverse secondary toxicities. Therefore, we developed metabolically stable and receptor-selective agonists for VIPR1 and VIPR2 to improve pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic therapeutic end points. Selective agonists were investigated for their abilities to protect mice against MPTP-induced neurodegeneration …

Loss Of Vglut3 Produces Circadian-Dependent Hyperdopaminergia And Ameliorates Motor Dysfunction And L-Dopa-Mediated Dyskinesias In A Model Of Parkinson's Disease., Christopher B. Divito, Kathy Steece-Collier, Daniel T. Case, Sean-Paul G. Williams, Jennifer A. Stancati, Lianteng Zhi, Maria E. Rubio, Caryl E. Sortwell, Timothy J. Collier, David Sulzer, Robert H. Edwards, Hui Zhang, Rebecca P. Seal

Department of Neuroscience Faculty Papers

UNLABELLED: The striatum is essential for many aspects of mammalian behavior, including motivation and movement, and is dysfunctional in motor disorders such as Parkinson's disease. The vesicular glutamate transporter 3 (VGLUT3) is expressed by striatal cholinergic interneurons (CINs) and is thus well positioned to regulate dopamine (DA) signaling and locomotor activity, a canonical measure of basal ganglia output. We now report that VGLUT3 knock-out (KO) mice show circadian-dependent hyperlocomotor activity that is restricted to the waking cycle and is due to an increase in striatal DA synthesis, packaging, and release. Using a conditional VGLUT3 KO mouse, we show that deletion …

Behavioral, Perceptual, And Neural Alterations In Sensory And Multisensory Function In Autism Spectrum Disorder., Sarah H Baum, Ryan A Stevenson, Mark T Wallace

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Although sensory processing challenges have been noted since the first clinical descriptions of autism, it has taken until the release of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) in 2013 for sensory problems to be included as part of the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the diagnostic profile. Because sensory information forms the building blocks for higher-order social and cognitive functions, we argue that sensory processing is not only an additional piece of the puzzle, but rather a critical cornerstone for characterizing and understanding ASD. In this review we discuss what …

Abcc9/Sur2 In The Brain: Implications For Hippocampal Sclerosis Of Aging And A Potential Therapeutic Target, Peter T. Nelson, Gregory A. Jicha, Wang-Xia Wang, Eseosa T. Ighodaro, Sergey C. Artiushin, Colin G. Nichols, David W. Fardo

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

The ABCC9 gene and its polypeptide product, SUR2, are increasingly implicated in human neurologic disease, including prevalent diseases of the aged brain. SUR2 proteins are a component of the ATP-sensitive potassium (“K _ATP ”) channel, a metabolic sensor for stress and/or hypoxia that has been shown to change in aging. The K _ATP channel also helps regulate the neurovascular unit. Most brain cell types express SUR2, including neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, microglia, vascular smooth muscle, pericytes, and endothelial cells. Thus it is not surprising that ABCC9 gene variants are associated with risk for human brain diseases. For example, Cantu syndrome is …

Differential Modification Of Cortical And Thalamic Projections To Cat Primary Auditory Cortex Following Early- And Late-Onset Deafness., Nicole Chabot, Blake E Butler, Stephen G Lomber

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Following sensory deprivation, primary somatosensory and visual cortices undergo crossmodal plasticity, which subserves the remaining modalities. However, controversy remains regarding the neuroplastic potential of primary auditory cortex (A1). To examine this, we identified cortical and thalamic projections to A1 in hearing cats and those with early- and late-onset deafness. Following early deafness, inputs from second auditory cortex (A2) are amplified, whereas the number originating in the dorsal zone (DZ) decreases. In addition, inputs from the dorsal medial geniculate nucleus (dMGN) increase, whereas those from the ventral division (vMGN) are reduced. In late-deaf cats, projections from the anterior auditory field (AAF) …

Finding The Engram., Sheena A Josselyn, Stefan Köhler, Paul W Frankland

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Many attempts have been made to localize the physical trace of a memory, or engram, in the brain. However, until recently, engrams have remained largely elusive. In this Review, we develop four defining criteria that enable us to critically assess the recent progress that has been made towards finding the engram. Recent 'capture' studies use novel approaches to tag populations of neurons that are active during memory encoding, thereby allowing these engram-associated neurons to be manipulated at later times. We propose that findings from these capture studies represent considerable progress in allowing us to observe, erase and express the engram.

Pharmacodynamics Of Folic Acid Receptor Targeted Antiretroviral Nanotherapy In Hiv-1-Infected Humanized Mice., Pavan Puligujja, Mariluz Araínga, Prasanta Dash, Diana L. Palandri, R. Lee Mosley, Santhi Gorantla, Larisa Y Poluektova, Joellyn Mcmillan, Howard Gendelman

Journal Articles: Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience

Long-acting nanoformulated antiretroviral therapy (nanoART) can sustain plasma drug levels and improve its biodistribution. Cell targeted-nanoART can achieve this and bring drug efficiently to viral reservoirs. However, whether such improvements affect antiretroviral responses remains unknown. To these ends, we tested folic acid (FA)-linked poloxamer407-coated ritonavir-boosted atazanavir (FA-nanoATV/r) nanoparticles for their ability to affect chronic HIV-1 infection in humanized mice. Following three, 100mg/kg FA-nanoATV/r intramuscular injections administered every other week to infected animals, viral RNA was at or below the detection limit, cell-associated HIV-1p24 reduced and CD4+ T cell counts protected. The dosing regimen improved treatment outcomes more than two fold …

Genomic Copy Number Variation In Mus Musculus., M Elizabeth O Locke, Maja Milojevic, Susan T Eitutis, Nisha Patel, Andrea E Wishart, Mark Daley, Kathleen A. Hill

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

BACKGROUND: Copy number variation is an important dimension of genetic diversity and has implications in development and disease. As an important model organism, the mouse is a prime candidate for copy number variant (CNV) characterization, but this has yet to be completed for a large sample size. Here we report CNV analysis of publicly available, high-density microarray data files for 351 mouse tail samples, including 290 mice that had not been characterized for CNVs previously.

RESULTS: We found 9634 putative autosomal CNVs across the samples affecting 6.87% of the mouse reference genome. We find significant differences in the degree of …

Taranis Functions With Cyclin A And Cdk1 In A Novel Arousal Center To Control Sleep In Drosophila., Dinis J.S. Afonso, Die Liu, Daniel R. Machado, Huihui Pan, James E.C. Jepson, Dragana Rogulja, Kyunghee Koh

Department of Neuroscience Faculty Papers

Sleep is an essential and conserved behavior whose regulation at the molecular and anatomical level remains to be elucidated. Here, we identify TARANIS (TARA), a Drosophila homolog of the Trip-Br (SERTAD) family of transcriptional coregulators, as a molecule that is required for normal sleep patterns. Through a forward-genetic screen, we isolated tara as a novel sleep gene associated with a marked reduction in sleep amount. Targeted knockdown of tara suggests that it functions in cholinergic neurons to promote sleep. tara encodes a conserved cell-cycle protein that contains a Cyclin A (CycA)-binding homology domain. TARA regulates CycA protein levels and genetically …

Motor Skill Learning Between Selection And Execution., Jörn Diedrichsen, Katja Kornysheva

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Learning motor skills evolves from the effortful selection of single movement elements to their combined fast and accurate production. We review recent trends in the study of skill learning which suggest a hierarchical organization of the representations that underlie such expert performance, with premotor areas encoding short sequential movement elements (chunks) or particular component features (timing/spatial organization). This hierarchical representation allows the system to utilize elements of well-learned skills in a flexible manner. One neural correlate of skill development is the emergence of specialized neural circuits that can produce the required elements in a stable and invariant fashion. We discuss …

Seasonal Change In The Avian Hippocampus., David F Sherry, Scott A Macdougall-Shackleton

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

The hippocampus plays an important role in cognitive processes, including memory and spatial orientation, in birds. The hippocampus undergoes seasonal change in food-storing birds and brood parasites, there are changes in the hippocampus during breeding, and further changes occur in some species in association with migration. In food-storing birds, seasonal change in the hippocampus occurs in fall and winter when the cognitively demanding behaviour of caching and retrieving food occurs. The timing of annual change in the hippocampus of food-storing birds is quite variable, however, and appears not to be under photoperiod control. A variety of factors, including cognitive performance, …

Mitochondria-Associated Micrornas In Rat Hippocampus Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Wang-Xia Wang, Nishant P. Visavadiya, Jignesh D. Pandya, Peter T. Nelson, Patrick G. Sullivan, Joe E. Springer

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability. However, the molecular events contributing to the pathogenesis are not well understood. Mitochondria serve as the powerhouse of cells, respond to cellular demands and stressors, and play an essential role in cell signaling, differentiation, and survival. There is clear evidence of compromised mitochondrial function following TBI; however, the underlying mechanisms and consequences are not clear. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally, and function as important mediators of neuronal development, synaptic plasticity, and neurodegeneration. Several miRNAs show altered expression following TBI; however, the …

Attentional Filtering Of Visual Information By Neuronal Ensembles In The Primate Lateral Prefrontal Cortex., Sébastien Tremblay, Florian Pieper, Adam Sachs, Julio Martinez-Trujillo

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

The activity of neurons in the primate lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is strongly modulated by visual attention. Such a modulation has mostly been documented by averaging the activity of independently recorded neurons over repeated experimental trials. However, in realistic settings, ensembles of simultaneously active LPFC neurons must generate attentional signals on a single-trial basis, despite the individual and correlated variability of neuronal responses. Whether, under these circumstances, the LPFC can reliably generate attentional signals is unclear. Here, we show that the simultaneous activity of neuronal ensembles in the primate LPFC can be reliably decoded to predict the allocation of attention …

The Piriform, Perirhinal, And Entorhinal Cortex In Seizure Generation., Marta S Vismer, Patrick A Forcelli, Mark D Skopin, Karen Gale, Mohamad Z. Koubeissi

Neurology Faculty Publications

Understanding neural network behavior is essential to shed light on epileptogenesis and seizure propagation. The interconnectivity and plasticity of mammalian limbic and neocortical brain regions provide the substrate for the hypersynchrony and hyperexcitability associated with seizure activity. Recurrent unprovoked seizures are the hallmark of epilepsy, and limbic epilepsy is the most common type of medically-intractable focal epilepsy in adolescents and adults that necessitates surgical evaluation. In this review, we describe the role and relationships among the piriform (PIRC), perirhinal (PRC), and entorhinal cortex (ERC) in seizure-generation and epilepsy. The inherent function, anatomy, and histological composition of these cortical regions are …

Prolonged In Vivo Retention Of A Cathepsin D Targeted Optical Contrast Agent In A Mouse Model Of Alzheimer's Disease., Jonatan A Snir, Mojmir Suchy, Keith St Lawrence, Robert H E Hudson, Stephen H Pasternak, Robert Bartha

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

BACKGROUND: Cathepsin D (CatD) is a lysosomal protease that is elevated early in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have previously developed a Targeted contrast agent (CA) to detect CatD activity in vivo, consisting of a magnetic resonance imaging/fluorescent moiety linked to a cell penetrating peptide (CPP) by means of a CatD cleavage site and have demonstrated its uptake in the brain of an AD mouse model.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to characterize the in vivo retention of a near infra-red fluorescent dye labeled version of this CA.

METHODS: Six adult C57Bl/6 wild-type mice and six adult 5XFAD transgenic …

High-Field Functional Imaging Of Pitch Processing In Auditory Cortex Of The Cat., Blake E. Butler, Amee J Hall, Stephen G Lomber

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

The perception of pitch is a widely studied and hotly debated topic in human hearing. Many of these studies combine functional imaging techniques with stimuli designed to disambiguate the percept of pitch from frequency information present in the stimulus. While useful in identifying potential "pitch centres" in cortex, the existence of truly pitch-responsive neurons requires single neuron-level measures that can only be undertaken in animal models. While a number of animals have been shown to be sensitive to pitch, few studies have addressed the location of cortical generators of pitch percepts in non-human models. The current study uses high-field functional …

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Of The Prefrontal Cortex In Awake Nonhuman Primates Evokes A Polysynaptic Neck Muscle Response That Reflects Oculomotor Activity At The Time Of Stimulation., Chao Gu, Brian D Corneil

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has emerged as an important technique in cognitive neuroscience, permitting causal inferences about the contribution of a given brain area to behavior. Despite widespread use, exactly how TMS influences neural activity throughout an interconnected network, and how such influences ultimately change behavior, remain unclear. The oculomotor system of nonhuman primates (NHPs) offers a potential animal model to bridge this gap. Here, based on results suggesting that neck muscle activity provides a sensitive indicator of oculomotor activation, we show that single pulses of TMS over the frontal eye fields (FEFs) in awake NHPs evoked rapid (within ∼25 …

Developmental Stress, Condition, And Birdsong: A Case Study In Song Sparrows., Kim L Schmidt, Elizabeth A Macdougall-Shackleton, Shawn P Kubli, Scott A Macdougall-Shackleton

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Sexual-selection theory posits that ornaments and displays can reflect a signaler's condition, which in turn is affected both by recent and developmental conditions. Moreover, developmental conditions can induce correlations between sexually selected and other traits if both types of traits exhibit developmental phenotypic plasticity in response to stressors. Thus, sexually selected traits may reflect recent and/or developmental characteristics of signalers. Here, we review data on the relationships between birdsong, a sexually selected trait, and developmental and current condition of birds from a long-term study of a population of song sparrows (Melospiza melodia). Field studies of free-living birds indicate that the …

Sharp Emergence Of Feature-Selective Sustained Activity Along The Dorsal Visual Pathway., Diego Mendoza-Halliday, Santiago Torres, Julio C Martinez-Trujillo

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Sustained activity encoding visual working memory representations has been observed in several cortical areas of primates. Where along the visual pathways this activity emerges remains unknown. Here we show in macaques that sustained spiking activity encoding memorized visual motion directions is absent in direction-selective neurons in early visual area middle temporal (MT). However, it is robustly present immediately downstream, in multimodal association area medial superior temporal (MST), as well as and in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC). This sharp emergence of sustained activity along the dorsal visual pathway suggests a functional boundary between early visual areas, which encode sensory inputs, …

Overt Responses During Covert Orienting., Brian D Corneil, Douglas P Munoz

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

A distributed network of cortical and subcortical brain areas controls our oculomotor behavior. This network includes the superior colliculus (SC), which coordinates an ancient visual grasp reflex via outputs that ramify widely within the brainstem and spinal cord, accessing saccadic and other premotor and autonomic circuits. In this Review, we discuss recent results correlating subliminal SC activity in the absence of saccades with diverse components of the visual grasp reflex, including neck and limb muscle recruitment, pupil dilation, and microsaccade propensity. Such subtle manifestations of covert orienting are accessible in the motor periphery and may provide the next generation of …

Gene Co-Citation Networks Associated With Worker Sterility In Honey Bees., Emma Kate Mullen, Mark Daley, Alanna Gabrielle Backx, Graham James Thompson

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

BACKGROUND: The evolution of reproductive self-sacrifice is well understood from kin theory, yet our understanding of how actual genes influence the expression of reproductive altruism is only beginning to take shape. As a model in the molecular study of social behaviour, the honey bee Apis mellifera has yielded hundreds of genes associated in their expression with differences in reproductive status of females, including genes directly associated with sterility, yet there has not been an attempt to link these candidates into functional networks that explain how workers regulate sterility in the presence of queen pheromone. In this study we use available …

Activation Of Mglur2/3 Receptors In The Ventro-Rostral Prefrontal Cortex Reverses Sensorimotor Gating Deficits Induced By Systemic Nmda Receptor Antagonists., Bridget Valsamis, Michael Chang, Marei Typlt, Susanne Schmid

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of acoustic startle is an operational measure of sensorimotor gating, which is disrupted in schizophrenia. NMDA receptor (NMDAR) antagonist induced PPI disruption has become an important pharmacological model for schizophrenia; however, knowledge of the underlying mechanism remains incomplete. This study examines the role of NMDAR in the caudal pontine reticular nucleus (PnC) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in NMDARs antagonist induced PPI deficits, as well as the NMDA receptor subtypes involved. We administered the NMDA antagonist MK-801 locally into the caudal pontine reticular formation (PnC), where the PPI mediating pathway converges with the primary startle pathway, …

Corticosterone Administration Up-Regulated Expression Of Norepinephrine Transporter And Dopamine Β-Hydroxylase In Rat Locus Coeruleus And Its Terminal Regions, Yan Fan, Ping Ping Chen, Ying Li, Kui Cui, Daniel M. Noel, Elizabeth D. Cummins, Daniel J. Peterson, Russell W. Brown, Meng-Yang Zhu

ETSU Faculty Works

Stress has been reported to activate the locus coeruleus (LC)-noradrenergic system. In this study, corticosterone (CORT) was orally administrated to rats for 21 days to mimic stress status. In situ hybridization measurements showed that CORT ingestion significantly increased mRNA levels of norepinephrine transporter (NET) and dopamine β-hydroxylase (DBH) in the LC region. Immunofluorescence staining and western blotting revealed that CORT treatment also increased protein levels of NET and DBH in the LC, as well as NET protein levels in the hippocampus, the frontal cortex and the amygdala. However, CORT-induced increase in DBH protein levels only appeared in the hippocampus and …

Bilateral Saccadic Deficits Following Large And Reversible Inactivation Of Unilateral Frontal Eye Field., Tyler R Peel, Kevin Johnston, Stephen G Lomber, Brian D Corneil

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Inactivation permits direct assessment of the functional contribution of a given brain area to behavior. Previous inactivation studies of the frontal eye field (FEF) have either used large permanent ablations or reversible pharmacological techniques that only inactivate a small volume of tissue. Here we evaluated the impact of large, yet reversible, FEF inactivation on visually guided, delayed, and memory-guided saccades, using cryoloops implanted in the arcuate sulcus. While FEF inactivation produced the expected triad of contralateral saccadic deficits (increased reaction time, decreased accuracy and peak velocity) and performance errors (neglect or misdirected saccades), we also found consistent increases in reaction …

Short-Duration Stimulation Of The Supplementary Eye Fields Perturbs Anti-Saccade Performance While Potentiating Contralateral Head Orienting., Brendan B Chapman, Brian D Corneil

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Many forms of brain stimulation utilize the notion of state dependency, whereby greater influences are observed when a given area is more engaged at the time of stimulation. Here, by delivering intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) to the supplementary eye fields (SEF) of monkeys performing interleaved pro- and anti-saccades, we show a surprising diversity of state-dependent effects of ICMS-SEF. Short-duration ICMS-SEF passed around cue presentation selectively disrupted anti-saccades by increasing reaction times and error rates bilaterally, and also recruited neck muscles, favoring contralateral head turning to a greater degree on anti-saccade trials. These results are consistent with the functional relevance of the …

Defects In Synapse Structure And Function Precede Motor Neuron Degeneration In Drosophila Models Of Fus-Related Als., Mohammad Shahidullah, Sylvain J Le Marchand, Hong Fei, Jiaming Zhang, Udai Bhan Pandey, Matthew B. Dalva, Piera Pasinelli, Irwin B. Levitan

Department of Neuroscience Faculty Papers

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disease that leads invariably to fatal paralysis associated with motor neuron degeneration and muscular atrophy. One gene associated with ALS encodes the DNA/RNA-binding protein Fused in Sarcoma (FUS). There now exist two Drosophila models of ALS. In one, human FUS with ALS-causing mutations is expressed in fly motor neurons; in the other, the gene cabeza (caz), the fly homolog of FUS, is ablated. These FUS-ALS flies exhibit larval locomotor defects indicative of neuromuscular dysfunction and early death. The locus and site of initiation of this neuromuscular dysfunction remain unclear. We show here …

Bdnf In The Dentate Gyrus Is Required For Consolidation Of "Pattern-Separated" Memories., Pedro Bekinschtein, Brianne A Kent, Charlotte A Oomen, Gregory D Clemenson, Fred H Gage, Lisa M Saksida, Timothy J Bussey

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Successful memory involves not only remembering information over time, but also keeping memories distinct and less confusable. The computational process for making representations for similar input patterns more distinct from each other has been referred to as "pattern separation." In this work, we developed a set of behavioral conditions that allowed us to manipulate the load for pattern separation at different stages of memory. Thus, we provide experimental evidence that a brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-dependent pattern separation process occurs during the encoding/storage/consolidation, but not the retrieval stage of memory processing. We also found that a spontaneous increase in BDNF in …

The Touchscreen Operant Platform For Testing Learning And Memory In Rats And Mice., Alexa E Horner, Christopher J Heath, Martha Hvoslef-Eide, Brianne A Kent, Chi Hun Kim, Simon R O Nilsson, Johan Alsiö, Charlotte A Oomen, Andrew Holmes, Lisa M Saksida, Timothy J Bussey

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

An increasingly popular method of assessing cognitive functions in rodents is the automated touchscreen platform, on which a number of different cognitive tests can be run in a manner very similar to touchscreen methods currently used to test human subjects. This methodology is low stress (using appetitive rather than aversive reinforcement), has high translational potential and lends itself to a high degree of standardization and throughput. Applications include the study of cognition in rodent models of psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, Huntington's disease, frontotemporal dementia), as well as the characterization of the role of select brain regions, …

The Touchscreen Operant Platform For Testing Working Memory And Pattern Separation In Rats And Mice., Charlotte A Oomen, Martha Hvoslef-Eide, Christopher J Heath, Adam C Mar, Alexa E Horner, Timothy J Bussey, Lisa M Saksida

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

The automated touchscreen operant chamber for rats and mice allows for the assessment of multiple cognitive domains within the same testing environment. This protocol presents the location discrimination (LD) task and the trial-unique delayed nonmatching-to-location (TUNL) task, which both assess memory for location. During these tasks, animals are trained to a predefined criterion during ∼20-40 daily sessions. In LD sessions, touching the same location on the screen is rewarded on consecutive trials, followed by a reversal of location-reward contingencies. TUNL, a working memory task, requires animals to 'nonmatch' to a sample location after a delay. In both the LD and …