Examining Cocaine Conditioning Place Preference in Mice
[Abstract] A key component of combating substance use disorders is understanding the neural mechanisms that support drug reward. Tasks such as self-administration assess the reinforcing properties of a drug using a learned behavior but require numerous training sessions and surgery. In comparison, the conditioned place preference (CPP) task assesses reward ...
Accessing Olfactory Habituation in Drosophila melanogaster with a T-maze Paradigm
[Abstract] Habituation is the process whereby perceptual changes alter the value of environmental stimuli, enabling salience filtering. This behavioral response decrement is a form of non-associative learning, where the subject learns about the stimulus and does not involve sensory adaptation, sensory or motor fatigue. The range of behavioral responses in D. ...
Artificial Inhalation Protocol in Adult Mice
Authors: Thomas P. Eiting and
Matt Wachowiak,
date: 09/20/2018,
view: 4031,
Q&A: 0
[Abstract] Research in the area of in vivo olfactory physiology benefits from having direct access to the nasal airways through which odorants can be presented. Ordinarily, the passage of odorants through the airways is controlled by respiratory rhythm. This fact makes it difficult to control the timing and strength of an olfactory stimulus, since ...
zPACT: Tissue Clearing and Immunohistochemistry on Juvenile Zebrafish Brain
[Abstract] In studies of brain function, it is essential to understand the underlying neuro-architecture. Very young zebrafish larvae are widely used for neuroarchitecture studies, due to their size and natural transparency. However, this model system has several limitations, due to the immaturity, high rates of development and limited behavioral repertoire ...
Stereotaxic Surgery for Suprachiasmatic Nucleus Lesions in Mice
Authors: Kimiko Shimizu and
Yoshitaka Fukada,
date: 06/20/2017,
view: 16333,
Q&A: 0
[Abstract] Site-specific lesions are invaluable methods for investigating the function of brain regions within the central nervous system and can be used to study neural mechanisms of behaviors. Precise stereotaxic surgery is required to lesion small regions of the brain such as the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which harbors the master circadian clock. In ...
Extracellular Axon Stimulation
[Abstract] This is a detailed protocol explaining how to perform extracellular axon stimulations as described in Städele and Stein, 2016. The ability to stimulate and record action potentials is essential to electrophysiological examinations of neuronal function. Extracellular stimulation of axons traveling in fiber bundles (nerves) is a classical technique ...
Assessment of Mechanical Allodynia in Rats Using the Electronic Von Frey Test
[Abstract] Chronic pain is one of the most debilitating conditions, affecting one out of five people worldwide. Preclinical models in rodents represent a valuable tool for the study of pathophysiological mechanisms and the discovery of new analgesic drugs. However, pain evaluation in rodents is rather challenging. Altered response to mechanical or thermal ...