Equipment
IntelliCage
The IntelliCage (NewBehavior, TSE Systems) is a platform for the automated testing of mouse behaviours in the cognitive domain. It is ideal for phenotyping genetically modified mice, profiling animal models of diseases/disorders and screening for major cognitive deficits or enhancements caused by the administration of drugs, surgery, treatment etc.
Features of the IntelliCage
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Feature |
Advantages |
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Testing arena is a large home cage |
-Up to 16 animals can be tested simultaneously (high throughput!). - Group-housing reduces stress-induced abnormal behaviour associated with isolation during testing. Therefore more natural behaviours are observed. -The stress-causing transfer of animals from home cage to testing arena is eliminated. -Long-term monitoring is possible. |
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Automated running of test battery and data acquisition |
- Once testing commences, disturbance by operator handling is eliminated which therefore limits the behavioural effects of stress caused by human contact. - The researcher does not need to be present during testing and so can allocate their time to other tasks. -Behaviour is precisely quantitated and automatically recorded by the software for further processing. Manual “scoring” is not required. -Animal activity can be observed in real time from a remote source, allowing more regular monitoring of their health status. -Improved standardisation achieved by having minimal disturbance.
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4 operant conditioning chambers per cage |
- Multiple behaviours and cognitive functions can be tested in a number of animals simultaneously. -Space and location can be factors in the experimental design. |
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RFID tags for animal identification |
-Each animal is recognised individually by the system. -Experimental groups can be co-housed. -Each animal can be given a unique testing scheme. -The behavioural profile can be built for each individual within each group and their progress tracked as the experiment runs. |
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Fully programmable experimental designs |
-The researcher has a high amount of control over the experimental design and therefore can tailor it to their specific needs. -Pre-made experimental modules are available for simple screening tasks. |
Applications of the IntelliCage
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Test |
Summary |
Relevant areas of study |
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Place learning |
Animal must learn to associate one chamber only with reward. |
Spatial learning and memory (hippocampus). An effective test for general cognitive and learning ability therefore suitable for screening new animal models of schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, etc. for major cognitive deficits. |
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Reversal Learning |
Animal must unlearn a learned rule. eg. Unlearning a place preference gained during Place Learning. |
Striatum (basal ganglia), prefrontal cortex (ADHD, schizophrenia). |
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Extinction |
Animal is no longer required to adhere to any rules to be rewarded. Behaviour is assessed to ascertain pattern of reversion. |
Striatum, prefrontal cortex. |
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Differential Reinforcement of Low Response Rate (DRL) |
Animal must leave a specified delay between actions. e.g. only 2 nosepokes separated by a 3 second delay will elicit a reward. |
Striatum, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, septum. Impulsivity relating to models of schizophrenia or ADHD. |
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Fixed Ratio |
Animal must learn to perform a consecutive action x number of times in order to be rewarded. e.g. animal must perform 5 consecutive nosepokes in 5 seconds. |
Drug preference, endocannabinoid system, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, addictive behaviours. |
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Progressive Ratio |
Same as Fixed Ratio except that the ratio is increased as the animal improves. |
Drug preference, prefrontal cortex, addictive behaviours. |
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Patrolling |
Animal must visit each corner in a specific order to obtain reward. |
Spatial, working memory, reference memory, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus. |
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Gambling Task |
Two locations will yield high infrequent reward and two will yield low frequent reward. It is arranged such that favouring the "low-frequent" locations will ultimately yield more reward. |
Striatum, prefrontal cortex, addictive behaviours, schizophrenia, reward systems. |
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N-back |
Animals must continually sample all four locations. When cued they must visit the previously visited location. |
Spatial learning and memory, Hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, striatum, working memory, schizophrenia. |
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Cued conditioning |
Animal must learn to respond to a cue and differentiate between different cues. e.g. Using 2 LEDs ON to signify “drinking available” with 6 LEDs ON meaning “drinking unavailable”. |
Hippocampus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex. |
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Side Discrimination |
Animal must discriminate between LHS and RHS within chamber. e.g. use left LEDs ON to signify “left side available” and right to mean “right side available”. Switch the rule so left LED mean RHS and vice versa. |
General learning, procedural learning. |
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Novel Object |
A novel object is placed under the grid in one of the chambers and chamber preference is monitored. |
Hippocampus, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, novelty seeking related to drug abuse. |
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Avoidance |
Animals must learn to avoid a particular corner that will administer an airpuff upon entry or after a nosepoke. |
Hippocampus, stress response, Alzheimer’s disease, long-term memory, anxiety studies. |
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Shuttling with serial reversal |
Animals must alternatively visit 2 corners to obtain reward. After x sessions, the rewarded corners are switched to the 2 previously unused corners etc. |
Behavioural flexibility, spatial learning and memory, hippocampus. |
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Sucrose Preference |
Animals are able to choose either water or a sucrose-water mixture. Degree of preference for sucrose is established. |
Reward systems, depression (anti-depressant drug studies), stress studies. |
See references
Rotarod
The Rotarod (IITC Inc.) is a very well established means of testing motor function in rodents. There are various measures of motor performance that can be assessed using this machine including balance, coordination, motor learning and fatigue/endurance. The rotarod test is a sensitive index of motor dysfunction as a result of drug treatment, injury, surgical procedure, genetic manipulation etc.
The Rotarod at the ABF can test up to 5 rodents at once and we have the necessary parts to accommodate both rats and mice. The software that complements this piece of equipment allows for the easy extraction and storage of data.
Features of the Rotarod
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Feature |
Advantages |
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Programmable speed profiles |
- Adjustable test length, start speed, top end speed, ramp speed and rotation direction (i.e. forward or reverse). -Testing schedules can be refined which allows for a more sensitive assay for motor performance. |
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Digitally controlled |
-Connects to software that records relevant measures (i.e. stopping RPM, length of test and distance travelled). Therefore, data is easily extracted and stored. -No manual scoring required. |
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Magnetic switch mechanism |
-Accurate detection of “animal drop”. -No manual scoring required. |
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5 lanes |
5 animals can be tested simultaneously. |
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Removable large and small rods |
Compatible with both mice and rats |
See references