RIVETS: A Mechanical System for In Vivo and In Vitro Electrophysiology and Imaging

Abstract

A number of recent studies have provided compelling demonstrations that both mice and rats can be trained to perform a variety of behavioral tasks while restrained by mechanical elements mounted to the skull. The independent development of this technique by a number of laboratories has led to diverse solutions. We found that these solutions often used expensive materials and impeded future development and modification in the absence of engineering support. In order to address these issues, here we report on the development of a flexible single hardware design for electrophysiology and imaging both in brain tissue in vitro. Our hardware facilitates the rapid conversion of a single preparation between physiology and imaging system and the conversion of a given system between preparations. In addition, our use of rapid prototyping machines (“3D printers”) allows for the deployment of new designs within a day. Here, we present specifications for design and manufacturing as well as some data from our lab demonstrating the suitability of the design for physiology in behaving animals and imaging in vitro and in vivo.

A Proposed Circuit Computation in Basal Ganglia: History‐Dependent Gain

“…61 It has also allowed us to analyze the kinematics and trajectories of discrete forelimb movements in a VAO task suited to mice. 15,56,62,63 Dopamine depletion produces systematic bias in performance toward slower, smaller amplitude movements in mice, 15 as it does in PD patients 9 ( Fig. 2a,b).…”

“…This task provides a quantifiable behavior with high spatiotemporal resolution in a model organism in which we can use modern molecular genetic methods to dissect BG circuit function . It has also allowed us to analyze the kinematics and trajectories of discrete forelimb movements in a VAO task suited to mice . Dopamine depletion produces systematic bias in performance toward slower, smaller amplitude movements in mice, as it does in PD patients (Fig.…”

Intact skull chronic windows for mesoscopic wide-field imaging in awake mice

“…Some behavioural training paradigms require multiple headfixed training sessions per day over several weeks (Chen et al, 2015), which would not be feasible should the mice need to be anesthetized for each training session. Alternative head-fixation devices utilizing ring-shaped chambers offer greater stability and may be used for cellular-level two-photon microscopy, however the larger footprint of the ring attachment reduces the imaging area (Hefendehl et al, 2012;Osborne and Dudman, 2014). In addition to the Metabond adhesive used here and in other studies (Hira et al, 2009), chronic windows may also be created with clear-drying OrthoJet adhesive (Guo et al, 2015) or with cyanoacrylate based adhesives (Yang et al, 2010).…”

Motor cortical output for skilled forelimb movement is selectively distributed across projection neuron classes

“…Following 3-5 days of initial water restriction, they underwent 10-20 days training, which simply involved exposure to the task and self-learning. Mice were head-fixed in a custom made head restraint box using the RIVETS head-fixation apparatus (see Osborne & Dudman, 2014 for methods 67 ). The mouse's front paws rested on a metal bar attached to a spring-loaded joystick, which had unconstrained 2D maneuverability in the horizontal plane.…”