An incremental training method with automated, extendable maze for training spatial behavioral tasks in rodents

Abstract

We present a training procedure and maze equipped with sensors and automated feeders for training spatial behavioral tasks in rodents. The maze can be transformed from an enclosed box to a maze of variable dimensions. The modularity of the protocol and setup makes it highly flexible and suitable for training a wide variety of spatial tasks, and facilitates incremental training stages of increasing maze size for more efficient learning. The apparatus, in its software and hardware, is able to adapt to animal performance, adjusting task challenges and difficulty. Two different methods of automatic behavioral scoring are evaluated against manual methods. Sensors embedded in the maze provide information regarding the order of reward locations visited and the time between the activation of the cue via the nose-poke and the activation of the reward location sensors. The distributions of these reaction times differ between correct and incorrect trials, providing an index of behavior and motivation. The automated maze system allows the trainer to operate and monitor the task away from the experimental set-up, minimizing human interference and improving the reproducibility of the experiment. We show that our method succeeds in training a binary forced-choice task in rats.

Stochastic characterization of navigation strategies in an automated variant of the Barnes maze

“…In this study, we developed an automated variant of the Barnes maze. In general, automated behavioral apparatuses reduce experimenter interference and ensure consistency across time and individuals ( Pioli et al, 2014 ; Zhang et al, 2018 ; Holleman et al, 2019 ; Mei et al, 2020 ). To change start positions, the whole arena is rotated to align home boxes with new start positions.…”

Stochastic characterization of navigation strategies in an automated variant of the Barnes maze

“…In this study, we developed an automated variant of the Barnes maze. In general, automated behavioral apparatuses reduce experimenter interference and ensure consistency across time and individuals [26][27][28][29] . Our maze was similar to the Barnes maze but had distinct features such as vestibules in front of the doors, which made detection of vestibule visits relatively easy, and the use of two luminous objects in the arena for allocentric information.…”

“…In this study, we developed an automated variant of the Barnes maze. In general, automated behavioral apparatuses reduce experimenter interference and ensure consistency across time and individuals [25][26][27][28] . To change start positions, the whole arena is rotated to align home boxes with new start positions.…”

Two complementary circuits for spatial navigation in mouse: evidence from Fos mapping

“…In this work, we successfully implemented a novel behavioral task that tests the ability of mice to follow the correct path and to retrieve a reward, based solely on the spatial context presented. Although similar automated maze devices were constructed previously [11,12,[15][16][17][18], and the T-Maze protocol has been tested in a plethora of previous studies [10,[19][20][21][22][23], it was always used in the win-shift arrangement, where spatial information merely supported the rule learning. The animals had to remember the given spatial orientation and utilize it to choose the opposite arm during the choice phase.…”