Publications by authors named "Gianna A Jordan"
Background: Reaching, grasping, and pulling behaviors are studied across species to investigate motor control and problem solving. String pulling is a distinct reaching and grasping behavior that is rapidly learned, requires bimanual coordination, is ethologically grounded, and has been applied across species and disease conditions.
New Method: Here we describe the PANDA system (Pulling And Neural Data Analysis), a hardware and software system that integrates a continuous string loop connected to a rotary encoder, feeder, microcontroller, high-speed camera, and analysis software for the assessment and training of reaching, grasping, and pulling behaviors and synchronization with neural data.
Article Synopsis
- String-pulling tasks have been used for a long time to study how animals use both hands to solve problems, but manual training and assessment can be labor-intensive and time-consuming.* -
- The PANDA system is an affordable setup that automates the training and assessment of string-pulling behaviors using various technologies like a rotary encoder and high-speed camera, allowing researchers to gather data more efficiently.* -
- Testing with both unimplanted and electrode-implanted rats shows the PANDA system can reveal important connections between movement and brain activity, making it valuable for research on motor control and disorders like Parkinson’s and stroke.*
Successful navigation depends critically upon two broad categories of spatial navigation strategies that include allocentric and egocentric reference frames, relying on external or internal spatial information, respectively. As with older adults, aged rats show robust impairments on a number of different spatial navigation tasks. There is some evidence that these navigation impairments are accompanied by a bias toward relying on egocentric over allocentric navigation strategies.
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