Age- and Sex-Related Differences in Contrast Sensitivity in C57Bl/6 Mice

Alphen, Bart van; Winkelman, Beerend H. J.; Frens, Maarten A.

doi:10.1167/iovs.08-2594

Cited by 49 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Our estimates of contrast threshold of ϳ10% falls in the middle of a wide distribution of published thresholds for mice, which range from Ͻ1% (van Alphen et al, 2009) to 24% (Schmucker and Schaeffel, 2006). Studies relying on optomotor eye and head reflexes typically yield lower thresholds than the swimming task .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Furthermore, different studies have used different definitions of threshold. Some studies define contrast threshold as the minimum contrast at which a response can be elicited (Prusky et al, 2000;Schmucker and Schaeffel, 2006;van Alphen et al, 2009). Others define it as the contrast that yields 70% correct responses Umino et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some of these methods involve measurements of reflexive movements of eye or body induced by drifting gratings surrounding the animal van Alphen et al, 2009). Other methods involve training the mouse to swim in a water maze toward a submerged platform, indicated by a visual stimulus (Prusky et al, 2000;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Detection of Visual Contrast in the Behaving Mouse

Busse¹,

Ayaz²,

Dhruv³

et al. 2011

J. Neurosci.

290

374

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The mouse is becoming a key species for research on the neural circuits of the early visual system. To relate such circuits to perception, one must measure visually guided behavior and ask how it depends on fundamental stimulus attributes such as visual contrast. Using operant conditioning, we trained mice to detect visual contrast in a two-alternative forced-choice task. After 3-4 weeks of training, mice performed hundreds of trials in each session. Numerous sessions yielded high-quality psychometric curves from which we inferred measures of contrast sensitivity. In multiple sessions, however, choices were influenced not only by contrast, but also by estimates of reward value and by irrelevant factors such as recent failures and rewards. This behavior was captured by a generalized linear model involving not only the visual responses to the current stimulus but also a bias term and history terms depending on the outcome of the previous trial. We compared the behavioral performance of the mice to predictions of a simple decoder applied to neural responses measured in primary visual cortex of awake mice during passive viewing. The decoder performed better than the animal, suggesting that mice might not use optimally the information contained in the activity of visual cortex.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Detection of Visual Contrast in the Behaving Mouse

Busse¹,

Ayaz²,

Dhruv³

et al. 2011

J. Neurosci.

290

374

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It has been shown that melanopsin containing ganglion cells mediate this reflex even if no photoreceptors are left (Foster and Hankins, 2002). None of the mice tested was able to discriminate gratings from uniform fields (van Alphen et al, 2009). The only visual task successfully passed by both rd1/rd1 and ChR2rd1/rd1 mice was the discrimination of a bright field from a dark field.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Function in Mice with Photoreceptor Degeneration and Transgenic Expression of Channelrhodopsin 2 in Ganglion Cells

Thyagarajan¹,

Wyk²,

Lehmann³

et al. 2010

Journal of Neuroscience

124

120

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The progression of rod and cone degeneration in retinally degenerate (rd) mice ultimately results in a complete loss of photoreceptors and blindness. The inner retinal neurons survive and several recent studies using genetically targeted, light activated channels have made these neurons intrinsically light sensitive. We crossbred a transgenic mouse line expressing channelrhodopsin2 (ChR2) under the control of the Thy1 promoter with the Pde6b rd1 mouse, a model for retinal degeneration (rd1/rd1). Approximately 30 -40% of the ganglion cells of the offspring expressed ChR2. Extracellular recordings from ChR2-expressing ganglion cells in degenerated retinas revealed their intrinsic light sensitivity which was ϳ7 log U less sensitive than the scotopic threshold and ϳ2 log U less sensitive than photopic responses of normal mice. All ChR2-expressing ganglion cells were excited at light ON. The visual performance of rd1/rd1 mice and ChR2 rd1/rd1 mice was compared. Behavioral tests showed that both mouse strains had a pupil light reflex and they were able to discriminate light fields from dark fields in the visual water task. Cortical activity maps were recorded with optical imaging. The ChR2rd1/rd1 mice did not show a better visual performance than rd1/rd1 mice. In both strains the residual vision was correlated with the density of cones surviving in the peripheral retina. The expression of ChR2 under the control of the Thy1 promoter in retinal ganglion cells does not rescue vision.

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“…All the behavioral analyses were performed blind with respect to the genotype of the mice. L7-PKCi mice and their control littermates were tested according to the SHIRPA protocol (Crawley, 1999) for comprehensive phenotype assessment prior to the experiment (De Zeeuw et al, 1998;Burguière et al, 2005;van Alphen et al, 2009). All experiments were performed in compliance with European Union Council animal ethics guidelines.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of the Cerebellar Cortex in Conditioned Goal-Directed Behavior

Burguière¹,

Arabo²,

Jarlier³

et al. 2010

J. Neurosci.

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Learning a new goal-directed behavioral task often requires the improvement of at least two processes, including an enhanced stimulusresponse association and an optimization of the execution of the motor response. The cerebellum has recently been shown to play a role in acquiring goal-directed behavior, but it is unclear to what extent it contributes to a change in the stimulus-response association and/or the optimization of the execution of the motor response. We therefore designed the stimulus-dependent water Y-maze conditioning task, which allows discrimination between both processes, and we subsequently subjected Purkinje cell-specific mutant mice to this new task. The mouse mutants L7-PKCi, which suffer from impaired PKC-dependent processes such as parallel fiber to Purkinje cell long-term depression (PF-PC LTD), were able to acquire the stimulus-response association, but exhibited a reduced optimization of their motor performance. These data show that PF-PC LTD is not required for learning a stimulus-response association, but they do suggest that a PKC-dependent process in cerebellar Purkinje cells is required for optimization of motor responses.

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Age- and Sex-Related Differences in Contrast Sensitivity in C57Bl/6 Mice

Cited by 49 publications

References 32 publications

The Detection of Visual Contrast in the Behaving Mouse

The Detection of Visual Contrast in the Behaving Mouse

Visual Function in Mice with Photoreceptor Degeneration and Transgenic Expression of Channelrhodopsin 2 in Ganglion Cells

Role of the Cerebellar Cortex in Conditioned Goal-Directed Behavior

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