Roughness discrimination with sandpaper surfaces: An olfactory confounding

Finger, Stanley; Frommer, Gabriel P.; Carmon, Amiram; Inbal, Rifka

doi:10.3758/bf03332356

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Animals were tested in a Y-maze modified to test texture discrimination capabilities using a two-alternative forced choice paradigm (2AFC) (Figure 1). A similar approach has previously been used in laboratory rodents (Smith, 1939;Finger and Frommer 1968;Finger et al, 1970;Lipp and Van der Loos, 1991;Hughes, 2007). The Y-maze ( Figure 1A) was custom-built from plexiglass, and consisted of a corridor (15'' long, 12'' high) and…”

Section: Testing Apparatus and Procedures `mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This allowed us to control for the possibility of choices being guided by olfactory cues from the sandpaper (Finger et al, 1970). In the flipped panel configuration, the stimulus panels were affixed such that the sandpaper-covered side faced the wall of the Y-maze and the smooth backing of the panel was instead facing inwards, towards the animal.…”

Section: Training Stagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Developmental plasticity of texture discrimination following early vision loss in the marsupialMonodelphis domestica

Ramamurthy

Dodson

Krubitzer³

2020

Preprint

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Behavioral strategies that depend on sensory information are not immutable; rather they can be shaped by the specific sensory context in which animals develop. This behavioral plasticity depends on the remarkable capacity for the brain to reorganize in response to alterations in the sensory environment, particularly when changes in sensory input occur at an early age. To study this phenomenon, we utilize the short-tailed opossum, a marsupial that has been a valuable animal model to study developmental plasticity due to the extremely immature state of its nervous system at birth. Previous studies in opossums have demonstrated that removal of retinal inputs early in development results in profound alterations to cortical connectivity and functional organization of visual and somatosensory cortex; however, behavioral consequences of this plasticity are not well understood. We trained early blind (EB) and sighted control (SC) opossums to perform a two-alternative forced choice texture discrimination task. Whisker trimming caused an acute deficit in discrimination accuracy for both EB and SC animals indicating that they primarily used a whisker-based strategy to guide choices based on tactile cues − though performance recovered in days, suggesting a shift to the use of other body parts when whiskers were absent. Mystacial whiskers were important for performance in both groups; however, genal whiskers only contributed to performance in EB animals. EB opossums significantly outperformed SC opossums in discrimination accuracy, being more sensitive to textural differences by ~75 μm smaller. Our results support behavioral compensation following early blindness using tactile inputs, especially the whisker system.

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Section: Testing Apparatus and Procedures `mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Training Stagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developmental plasticity of texture discrimination following early vision loss in the marsupialMonodelphis domestica

Ramamurthy

Dodson

Krubitzer³

2020

Preprint

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“…1 A–D). A similar approach has previously been used in laboratory rodents ( Smith, 1939 ; Finger and Frommer, 1968 ; Finger et al, 1970 ; Lipp and Van der Loos, 1991 ; Hughes, 2007 ). The -maze ( Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, data were also acquired on days when either the same texture was presented on both sides, or a P120 versus P2000 combination was presented with the panels flipped. This allowed us to control for the possibility of choices being guided by olfactory cues from the sandpaper ( Finger et al, 1970 ). In the flipped panel configuration, the stimulus panels were affixed such that the sandpaper-covered side faced the wall of the -maze and the smooth backing of the panel was instead facing inwards, towards the animal.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1A-D). A similar approach has previously been used in laboratory rodents (Smith, 1939;Finger and Frommer, 1968;Finger et al, 1970;Lipp and Van der Loos, 1991;Hughes, The number of sessions during which each texture combination was sampled. Two to three texture combinations were sampled during any given testing session; 10-12 trials were conducted per animal each day.…”

Section: Testing Apparatus and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Developmental plasticity of texture discrimination following early vision loss in the marsupial Monodelphis domestica

Ramamurthy

Dodson

Krubitzer

2021

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Behavioral strategies that depend on sensory information are not immutable; rather they can be shaped by the specific sensory context in which animals develop. This behavioral plasticity depends on the remarkable capacity of the brain to reorganize in response to alterations in the sensory environment, particularly when changes in sensory input occur at an early age. To study this phenomenon, we utilize the short-tailed opossum, a marsupial that has been a valuable animal model to study developmental plasticity due to the extremely immature state of its nervous system at birth. Previous studies in opossums have demonstrated that removal of retinal inputs early in development results in profound alterations to cortical connectivity and functional organization of visual and somatosensory cortex; however, behavioral consequences of this plasticity are not well understood. We trained early blind and sighted control opossums to perform a two-alternative forced choice texture discrimination task. Whisker trimming caused an acute deficit in discrimination accuracy for both groups, indicating the use of a primarily whisker-based strategy to guide choices based on tactile cues. Mystacial whiskers were important for performance in both groups; however, genal whiskers only contributed to behavioral performance in early blind animals. Early blind opossums significantly outperformed their sighted counterparts in discrimination accuracy, with discrimination thresholds that were lower by ∼75 μm. Our results support behavioral compensation following early blindness using tactile inputs, especially the whisker system.

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Testing Procedures and the Interpretation of Behavioral Data

Norrsell

1978

Recovery From Brain Damage

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Roughness discrimination with sandpaper surfaces: An olfactory confounding

Cited by 8 publications

References 8 publications

Developmental plasticity of texture discrimination following early vision loss in the marsupialMonodelphis domestica

Developmental plasticity of texture discrimination following early vision loss in the marsupialMonodelphis domestica

Developmental plasticity of texture discrimination following early vision loss in the marsupial Monodelphis domestica

Testing Procedures and the Interpretation of Behavioral Data

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