Rodents use their whisker system to discriminate surface texture. Whisker-based texture discrimination tasks are often used to investigate the mechanisms encoding tactile sensation. One such task is the textured Novel Object Recognition Test (tNORT). It takes advantage of a tendency of rodents to explore novel objects more than familiar ones and assesses the sensitivity of whiskers in discriminating different textures of objects. It requires little training of the animals and the equipment involved is a simple arena with typically two objects placed inside. The success of the test relies on rodents spending sufficient time exploring these objects. Animals may lose interests in such tasks when performed repetitively within a limited time frame. However, such repeated tests may be crucial when establishing a sensitivity threshold of the whisker system. Here we present an adapted rodent tNORT protocol designed to maintain sustained interest in the objects even with repeated testing. We constructed complex objects from three simple-shaped objects. Different textures were provided by sandpapers of varying grit sizes. To minimise olfactory clues, we used the sandy and the laminar side of the same sandpaper as the familiar and novel textures assigned at random. We subsequently conducted repeated tNORTs on eight rats in order to identify a critical threshold of the sandpaper grit size below which rats would be unable to discriminate the sandy from the laminar side. With an inter-test-interval of seven days and after five tNORTs, the protocol enabled us to successfully identify the threshold. We suggest that the proposed tNORT is a useful tool for investigating the sensitivity threshold of the whisker system of rodent, and for testing the effectiveness of an intervention by comparing sensitivity threshold pre- and post-intervention.
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Cell Rep
January 2025
Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Center for Neurophotonics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston MA 02215, USA. Electronic address:
Task learning involves learning associations between stimuli and outcomes and storing these relationships in memory. While this information can be reliably decoded from population activity, individual neurons encoding this representation can drift over time. The circuit or molecular mechanisms underlying this drift and its role in learning are unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElife
January 2025
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, United States.
High-resolution awake mouse functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) remains challenging despite extensive efforts to address motion-induced artifacts and stress. This study introduces an implantable radio frequency (RF) surface coil design that minimizes image distortion caused by the air/tissue interface of mouse brains while simultaneously serving as a headpost for fixation during scanning. Furthermore, this study provides a thorough acclimation method used to accustom animals to the MRI environment minimizing motion-induced artifacts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Monit Assess
December 2024
Department of VLSI Microelectronics, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Saveetha University, Chennai, 602105, Tamil Nadu, India.
Knowledge of soil temperature (ST) is important for analysing environmental conditions and climate change. Moreover, ST is a vital element of soil that impacts crop growth as well as the germination of the seeds. In this study, four machine-learning (ML) paradigms including random forest (RF), radial basis neural network (RBNN), multi-layer perceptron neural network (MLPNN), and co-active neuro-fuzzy inference system (CANFIS) were used for estimation of daily ST at different soil depths (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Res
February 2025
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Department of Biofunctional Analysis, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Daigakunishi 1-25-4, Gifu 501-1196, Japan. Electronic address:
Whisker-mediated tactile perception is essential for rodent navigation, food acquisition, and social interactions. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying tactile information processing, learning, and memory have not been studied to the same extent as for other modalities. Using immunohistochemical staining, we investigated changes in regional c-Fos expression as an index of neuronal activity and phosphorylated (p)ERK1/2 as an index of ERK1/2 activity in mice trained on a tactile-cued 8-arm radial maze task.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Dev Neurosci
February 2025
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Uskudar University, Istanbul, Turkey.
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