The Virtual-Environment-Foraging Task enables rapid training and single-trial metrics of attention in head-fixed mice.

ABSTRACT: Attention - the flexible allocation of processing resources based on behavioural demands - is essential to survival. Mouse research offers unique tools to dissect the underlying pathways, but is hampered by the difficulty of accurately measuring attention in mice. Current attention tasks for mice face several limitations: Binary (hit/miss), temporally imprecise metrics, behavioural confounds and overtraining. Thus, despite the increasing scope of neuronal population measurements, insights are limited without equally precise behavioural measures. Here we present a virtual-environment task for head-fixed mice based on 'foraging-like' navigation. The task requires animals to discriminate gratings at orientation differences from 90° to 5°, and can be learned in only 3-5 sessions (<550 trials).

SUBMITTER: Havenith MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6255915 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature