Active attention training system for visual targets in awake rats/mice

Abstract

The invention discloses a visual target active attention training system for sober rats / mice. The visual target active attention training system comprises a master control unit, a behavior restricting high table, a visual stimulation display unit, an infrared eye movement monitoring unit, a basic controller, a water feeding rewarding unit and a video monitoring unit. The visual target active attention training system has the advantages that active attention of the tested animals to visual targets can be effectively improved, the conditioned reflex time of the tested rats / mice from generating the attention to the visual targets to behavior feedback is shortened, and the duration of the active attention of the tested rats / mice to the visual targets is prolonged in experimental procedures; the visual target active attention training system supports various visual cognition experimental paradigms, and is easy to extent and high in universality; the visual target active attention training system has important application value and high experimental demands in research fields of coding of neurons of vision systems, brain cognition functions, drug evaluation, plasticity of neural networks and the like.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to the fields of neurophysiology and cognitive behavior, in particular to a training system for active focus on visual targets of awake mice / mice. Background technique [0002] Rats / mice are the most commonly used model animals in the study of visual nervous system function and visual cognitive behavioral function. During the experiment, the rats / mice are usually required to be able to actively pay attention to the visual stimulus target. In the study of the function of the visual nervous system, how neurons encode and represent visual stimuli is of great value. In the experiment, it is necessary to ensure that the visual stimulus is in a relatively constant position in the visual field of the tested animal. At present, there have been very in-depth and extensive studies on the neuron coding characteristics of the large / mouse visual system in the anesthetized state, but the neuron coding characteristics in the awake state will be ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0004] At present, experimental devices with small space are often used in rat / mice visual cognitive behavior experimental devices to reduce the interference of space exploration time and other perceptual factors of free-moving animals, but on the one hand, this method is very It is difficult to ensure that the animal is "seeing" when the visual target appears, resulting in a large number of invalid trials and prolonged training time for the tested animal to focus on the screen; Implantable microelectrodes to collect and analyze neural signals have become the mainstream trend in this field, but it is easy to damage the electrodes if the animals are allowed to move freely in the small experimental box. The time course to the eventual reward is also long, making it difficult to determine which time windows in the neural signal correspond to the states in which the animal is undergoing visual target recognition

[0005] Therefore, it is necessary to develop a method that can not only make the tested sober mice / mice in a natural state during the experiment, but also effectively limit their activity space, so as to facilitate the training of the tested animals to actively focus on the visual target, and shorten the distance between the visual target and the visual target. Automated training system for conditioned reflex establishment time between behavioral responses, but has not been reported in this regard

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