A plantar shock device for head-fixed animal behavior tasks

Abstract

The present invention provides a plantar shock device for head-fixed animal behavior tasks, which includes a support member, a plantar shocker rotatably connected to the support member. The plantar shocker has a rotation axis parallel to the horizontal plane, and the plantar shocker can rotate around this rotation axis. The support member supports the experimental animal through the plantar shocker, and the plantar shocker can rotate under the drive of the experimental animal's foot; above the plantar shocker, there is a head fixator for fixing the head of the experimental animal; the setting of the head fixator and the rotatable plantar shocker ensures the consistency of irrelevant variables in the head-fixed experimental paradigm and the free movement test paradigm, achieving the effect of mutual verification of different experimental forms.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of measurement of compulsive characteristic behaviors, and particularly relates to a plantar shock device for head-fixed animal behavior tasks. Background Art

[0002] In the existing experimental paradigms of head-fixed animal behavior tasks, most experimenters give animals sensory signals of electric shock pain through the method of "tail shock". Specifically, the experimenters stick an electrode patch on the animal's tail, or clamp the animal's tail with a conductive metal clip, and achieve tail shock of the animal by energizing the electrode patch or the metal clip. In the conditioned fear ethology paradigm, the experimenters give neutral auditory or olfactory stimuli and at the same time give tail shock, so that the animals match the neutral stimuli with the tail shock, thereby forming conditioned fear memories of the neutral stimuli. In the shuttle box avoidance ethology paradigm, the experimenters adopt a combination of a virtual reality system and tail shock. When the animal walks on the floating ball and reaches the "dangerous area" in the virtual reality system scenario, the experimenters will give tail shock. When the animal escapes on the floating ball and reaches the "safe area" in the virtual reality system scenario, the experimenters will stop the tail shock.

[0003] However, in the existing experimental paradigms of freely moving animal behaviors, most experimenters give animals sensory signals of electric shock pain through the method of "plantar shock". In the conditioned fear ethology paradigm and the shuttle box avoidance ethology paradigm, the floor of the experimental box is composed of plantar shock plates. In the conditioned fear ethology paradigm, the experimenters give neutral auditory or olfactory stimuli and at the same time give plantar shock, so that the animals match the neutral stimuli with the plantar shock, thereby forming conditioned fear memories of the neutral stimuli. In the shuttle box avoidance ethology paradigm, when the animal walks in the experimental box and reaches the "dangerous area", the experimenters will give tail shock. When the animal escapes in the experimental box and reaches the "safe area", the experimenters will stop the tail shock.

[0004] As mentioned above, in the existing experimental paradigms of head-fixed animal behavior tasks, most experimenters give animals sensory signals of electric shock pain through the method of "tail shock". However, in the existing experimental paradigms of freely moving animal behaviors, most experimenters give animals sensory signals of electric shock pain through the method of "plantar shock". Since the body parts for giving animals sensory signals of electric shock pain are different, the neural circuits mediating the pain sensory signals of "tail shock" and "plantar shock" are inconsistent. This situation will lead to deviations between the neural mechanisms analyzed by experimenters in the experimental paradigm of head-fixed animal behavior tasks and those analyzed in the experimental paradigm of freely moving animal behaviors, which is not conducive to the mutual verification between multiple experimental forms. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The object of the present invention is to solve the technical problem that the neural mechanisms analyzed in the experimental paradigm of the head-fixed animal behavior task in the prior art are deviated from the neural mechanisms analyzed in the experimental paradigm of the freely moving animal behavior, which is not conducive to the mutual verification between various experimental forms.

[0006] To solve the above technical problem, the present invention provides a plantar shock device for a head-fixed animal behavior task, which includes: a support member, a plantar shocker rotatably connected to the support member, the plantar shocker having a rotation axis parallel to the horizontal plane, the plantar shocker being rotatable about the rotation axis, the support member supporting an experimental animal through the plantar shocker, the plantar shocker being rotatable under the drive of the experimental animal's foot, and a head fixator for fixing the head of the experimental animal being provided above the plantar shocker.

[0007] Further, the cross-section of the plantar shocker perpendicular to its rotation axis is circular.

[0008] Further, the plantar shocker is a sphere, including a positive hemisphere and a negative hemisphere separated from each other.

[0009] Further, an insulating material is provided between the positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere, and the positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere are connected through the insulating material.

[0010] Further, it further includes a power supply and a switch. A plurality of independent shock regions are provided on the surface of the positive hemisphere. The number of switches corresponds to the number of shock regions. The power supply is connected in parallel with the plurality of shock regions through the switches. The plurality of shock regions on the positive hemisphere are arranged around the rotation axis and the edges of the shock regions are in contact with each other. The experimenter can selectively control the connection or disconnection of any shock region with the power supply through the switch.

[0011] Further, a plurality of metal strips evenly spaced around the rotation axis are provided in the shock region. One ends of the metal strips are all close to the negative hemisphere, and the other ends are all far from the negative hemisphere.

[0012] Further, an insulating hard material strip is provided between two metal strips, and both ends of the insulating hard material strip are in contact with the adjacent metal strips.

[0013] Further, it further includes two conductive rods corresponding to the positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere one by one. The axis of the conductive rod coincides with the rotation axis of the positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere and is fixedly connected to the positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere. The positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere are arranged on the support member through the conductive rods. The conductive rod is electrically connected to the power supply, and the shock region is connected in parallel with the conductive rod.

[0014] Further, it further includes a controller, and the controller can control the current intensity and the energization duration of the plantar shocker.

[0015] As can be seen from the above technical solutions, the beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: The setting of the head fixator and the rotatable plantar electric shock device ensures the consistency of the irrelevant variables in the head-fixed experimental paradigm and the free movement test paradigm, achieving the effect of mutual verification of different experimental forms. Description of the Drawings

[0016] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the usage state of the plantar electric shock device provided by the present application.

[0017] Figure 2 It is a three-dimensional structure schematic diagram of the plantar electric shock device provided by the present application.

[0018] Explanation of the reference numerals in the drawings is as follows: 1, conductive rod; 2, positive hemisphere; 3, negative hemisphere; 4, gap; 5, metal strip; 6, insulating hard material strip; 7, head fixator; 8, plantar electric shock controller; 9, animal with fixed head. Detailed Embodiments

[0019] Typical embodiments embodying the features and advantages of the present invention will be described in detail in the following description. It should be understood that the present invention can have various variations in different embodiments, all of which do not depart from the scope of the present invention, and the descriptions and illustrations therein are for illustrative purposes in nature and not for limiting the present invention.

[0020] In the description of the present application, it should be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "transverse", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", etc. indicate the orientation or positional relationship based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present application and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and thus should not be construed as a limitation of the present application. In addition, the terms "first" and "second" are only used for descriptive purposes and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Thus, the features defined with "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the said features. In the description of the present application, "a plurality" means two or more, unless otherwise specifically defined.

[0021] To further illustrate the principle and structure of the present invention, the preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[0022] Please refer to Figure 1-2, A plantar shock device for head-fixed animal behavior tasks provided in this embodiment includes a sensor and a plantar shocker. The sensor performs two-photon imaging or electrophysiological recording on the animal's brain. The plantar shocker has a rotation axis parallel to the horizontal plane, and the plantar shocker can rotate around this rotation axis. Above the plantar shocker, there is a head fixator 7 for fixing the head of the experimental animal. Before the head fixation experiment, the experimenter can use existing techniques to fix the animal's head to the head fixator 7. At the same time, the experimenter places the four feet of the animal steadily on the plantar shocker so that the animal can walk normally on the plantar shocker. When the animal's sole receives an electric shock, the animal will feel the pain and fear caused by the electric shock, so it may show behaviors such as running forward or backward frantically. At this time, the plantar shocker rotates clockwise or counterclockwise under the drive of the animal's foot. After a period of time, the experimenter can manually operate the plantar shock controller to make the plantar shocker stop powering on. After the head fixation experiment is over, the experimenter separates the animal's head from the head fixator 7.

[0023] It should be noted that the head fixator 7 is only a component for fixing the animal's head. The solution claimed by the present invention does not involve the specific structure of the head fixator 7. Therefore, the specific structure of the head fixator 7 will not be elaborated here. The head fixator 7 can be fixedly arranged on a support member (not shown in the figure), or can be fixedly connected to other external objects, as long as it can play a role in fixing the animal's head.

[0024] In experiments such as two-photon imaging or electrophysiological recording, by fixing the animal's head, it is possible to prevent the animal from moving randomly during the experiment, so as to keep it in a waking state for precise observation and analysis of its brain. At the same time, by fixing the animal's head, it is possible to ensure the stability of the animal's position and posture during the experiment, thereby reducing experimental errors and interference factors. And the head fixator 7 can greatly reduce the signal noise caused by the jitter of the sensor when the animal is moving, so as to effectively improve the signal-to-noise ratio and analyze more complex and diverse response patterns of neurons.

[0025] The setting of the head fixator 7 and the rotatable plantar shocker ensures the consistency of the irrelevant variables in the head-fixed experimental paradigm and the free movement test paradigm, achieving the effect of mutual verification of different experimental forms.

[0026] It further includes a support member and a power supply. The plantar shocker is connected to the positive and negative poles of the power supply. The plantar shocker is rotatably connected to the support member. The support member can be an existing support frame, and the above-mentioned sensor can also be an existing one. The specific designs of the support frame and the sensor will not be elaborated here.

[0027] The sole electroshocker further includes two conductive rods 1 corresponding to the positive electrode hemisphere 2 and the negative electrode hemisphere 3 one by one. The axis of the conductive rod 1 coincides with the rotation axes of the positive electrode hemisphere 2 and the negative electrode hemisphere 3 and is fixedly connected to the positive electrode hemisphere 2 and the negative electrode hemisphere 3. The positive electrode hemisphere 2 and the negative electrode hemisphere 3 are arranged on the support member through the conductive rod 1, and the conductive rod 1 is connected to the power supply.

[0028] To facilitate the stable running of the animal on the sole electroshocker, the cross-section of the sole electroshocker perpendicular to its rotation axis is preferably circular. The geometric shape of the sole electroshocker can be a cylinder (not shown in the figure) or a sphere. When the sole electroshocker is a cylinder, the sole electroshocker includes a first cylinder (not shown in the figure) and a second cylinder (not shown in the figure) arranged at intervals. The first cylinder is connected to the positive pole of the power supply, and the second cylinder is connected to the negative pole of the power supply. During the experiment, the animal is located between the first cylinder and the second cylinder. Two feet on one side of the animal are in contact with the first cylinder, and two feet on the other side are in contact with the second cylinder. When the sole electroshocker is a sphere, the sole electroshocker includes a positive electrode hemisphere 2 and a negative electrode hemisphere 3 arranged at intervals. The positive electrode hemisphere 2 is connected to the positive pole of the power supply, and the negative electrode hemisphere 3 is connected to the negative pole of the power supply. During the experiment, the animal is located between the positive electrode hemisphere 2 and the negative electrode hemisphere 3. Two feet on one side of the animal are in contact with the positive electrode hemisphere 2, and two feet on the other side are in contact with the negative electrode hemisphere 3. The geometric shape of the sole electroshocker is preferably a sphere. The spherical sole electroshocker has a smaller volume and lighter weight compared to the cylindrical sole electroshocker, so that the animal can more easily drive the sole electroshocker to rotate, and the spherical design can better adapt to the shape of the animal's sole, enabling the animal's sole to better fit the sole electroshocker.

[0029] The above-mentioned sole electroshocker is not limited to a geometric object with a circular cross-section. The sole electroshocker can also be a treadmill with a flat grid track. The stripes parallel to the treadmill roller axis in the grid track are made of conductive hard material metal strips, and the stripes perpendicular to the treadmill roller axis are made of insulating hard material strips. The treadmill roller can rotate bidirectionally.

[0030] Furthermore, in order to enable the separated positive electrode hemisphere 2 and negative electrode hemisphere 3 to rotate synchronously, the positive electrode hemisphere 2 and the negative electrode hemisphere 3 are connected. Specifically, an insulating material is provided between the positive electrode hemisphere 2 and the negative electrode hemisphere 3, and the positive electrode hemisphere 2 and the negative electrode hemisphere 3 are connected through the insulating material.

[0031] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of electric shock areas are provided on the sole electric shock device. The plurality of electric shock areas are arranged around the rotation axis of the positive hemisphere 2 and the negative hemisphere 3. The electric shock areas are connected in parallel with the conductive rod 1. Specifically, the electric shock areas are provided on the positive hemisphere 2. The experimenter can control the connection or disconnection of the electric shock areas with the power supply. During the experiment, the positive hemisphere 2 and the negative hemisphere 3 rotate under the drive of the animal. During the rotation process, the electric shock areas come into contact with the animal's feet in sequence. The experimenter controls some of the electric shock areas to be connected to the power supply, forming a dangerous area and a safe area on the surface of the positive hemisphere 2. When the animal is in the dangerous area, it will run due to the electric shock on its feet. When it is in the safe area, the electric shock on the animal's feet stops. Since the feet are the body parts where the animal directly feels the electric shock pain sensation signal and directly initiates the running behavior, sole electric shock is more conducive to the animal understanding the connection between running away and avoiding electric shock, and thus more conducive to the animal learning to avoid the "dangerous area" by running away. Therefore, the design of the electric shock areas can effectively improve the experimental efficiency; through the spherical sole electric shock device and the setting of the electric shock areas, the avoidance behavior paradigm experiment of animals can be carried out. Without the aid of virtual reality technology, the dangerous area and the safe area can be set, the experimental cost is reduced, and the connection or disconnection of some of the electric shock areas can be selectively controlled, which can play the role of flexibly adjusting the areas of the dangerous area and the safe area.

[0032] In order to enable the controller to selectively control the connection or disconnection of any electric shock area with the power supply, a switch is further included. The number of switches corresponds one-to-one to the number of electric shock areas. The power supply is connected in parallel with the plurality of electric shock areas through the switches. The experimenter controls the connection or disconnection of the electric shock areas with the power supply through the switches.

[0033] Furthermore, a controller is further included. The controller can be a manually operated controller or a computer. The controller can control the current intensity and the power-on duration of the sole electric shock device; when the controller is a computer, the switch described above is a relay electrically connected to the controller. The controller controls the relay to achieve the disconnection or connection of the electric shock area to the circuit.

[0034] In order to enable independent control of the electric shock areas on the positive hemisphere 2, the above positive hemisphere 2 is made of an insulating material. A plurality of metal strips 5 evenly spaced around the rotation axis are provided in the electric shock areas. The metal strips 5 are adhesively fixed on the surface of the positive hemisphere 2. One end of each metal strip 5 is close to the negative hemisphere 3, and the other end is far from the negative hemisphere 3. The plurality of metal strips 5 constitute the electric shock area. The switch corresponding to the electric shock area can simultaneously control the connection or disconnection of the metal strips 5 in this area with the power supply.

[0035] The surface of the above-mentioned negative hemisphere 3 can be made of metal or insulating material. When the negative hemisphere 3 is made of insulating material, a number of metal strips 5 evenly spaced around its rotation axis are also provided on the negative hemisphere 3. The metal strips 5 are adhesively fixed to the surface of the negative hemisphere 3. One end of the metal strip 5 is close to the positive hemisphere 2, and the other end is far from the positive hemisphere 2.

[0036] Furthermore, as a preferred embodiment, a plurality of insulating rigid strips 6 are fixedly arranged between the positive hemisphere 2 or two metal strips 5 on the positive hemisphere 2 and the negative hemisphere 3. Both ends of the insulating rigid strip 6 are in contact with the adjacent metal strip 5. The insulating rigid strip 6 firmly fixes the metal strip 5 on the positive hemisphere 2, and can prevent the metal strip 5 from loosening due to repeated trampling by the animal's foot.

[0037] Although the present invention has been described with reference to several exemplary embodiments, it should be understood that the terms used are descriptive and exemplary, rather than restrictive. Since the present invention can be embodied in many forms without departing from the spirit or essence of the invention, it should be understood that the above-described embodiments are not limited to any of the foregoing details, but should be broadly construed within the spirit and scope defined by the appended claims. Therefore, all changes and modifications falling within the scope of the claims or their equivalents should be covered by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A plantar shock device for head-fixed animal behavior tasks, characterized in that, It includes a support member, a plantar electric shock device rotatably connected to the support member. The plantar electric shock device has a rotation axis parallel to the horizontal plane, and the plantar electric shock device can rotate around this rotation axis. The support member supports the experimental animal through the plantar electric shock device, and the plantar electric shock device can rotate under the drive of the experimental animal's foot; above the plantar electric shock device, there is a head fixator for fixing the head of the experimental animal; The plantar electric shock device is a sphere, including a positive hemisphere and a negative hemisphere that are separately arranged; There is an insulating material between the positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere, and the positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere are connected through the insulating material; It also includes a power supply and switches. There are several independent electric shock areas arranged on the surface of the positive hemisphere. The number of switches corresponds to the number of electric shock areas. The power supply is connected in parallel with several electric shock areas through the switches. The several electric shock areas on the positive hemisphere are arranged around the rotation axis and the edges of the electric shock areas are adjacent to each other. The experimenter can selectively control the connection or disconnection of any electric shock area with the power supply through the switches; There are several metal strips evenly spaced around the rotation axis arranged in the electric shock area. One end of each metal strip is close to the negative hemisphere, and the other end is far from the negative hemisphere; There is an insulating hard strip between two metal strips, and both ends of the insulating hard strip are in contact with the adjacent metal strips; It also includes two conductive rods corresponding to the positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere one by one. The axis of the conductive rod coincides with the rotation axis of the positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere and is fixedly connected to the positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere. The positive hemisphere and the negative hemisphere are arranged on the support member through the conductive rods. The conductive rods are electrically connected to the power supply, and the electric shock areas are connected in parallel with the conductive rods.

2. The plantar shock device for head-fixed animal behavior tasks according to claim 1, wherein The cross-section of the plantar electric shock device perpendicular to its rotation axis is circular.

3. The plantar shock device for head-fixed animal behavior tasks according to any one of claims 1-2, characterized in that, It also includes a controller that can control the current intensity and power-on duration of the plantar electric shock device.

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