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Jankowski MM, Polterovich A, Kazakov A, Niediek J, Nelken I. An automated, low-latency environment for studying the neural basis of behavior in freely moving rats. BMC Biol 2023; 21:172. [PMID: 37568111 PMCID: PMC10416379 DOI: 10.1186/s12915-023-01660-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Accepted: 07/10/2023] [Indexed: 08/13/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Behavior consists of the interaction between an organism and its environment, and is controlled by the brain. Brain activity varies at sub-second time scales, but behavioral measures are usually coarse (often consisting of only binary trial outcomes). RESULTS To overcome this mismatch, we developed the Rat Interactive Foraging Facility (RIFF): a programmable interactive arena for freely moving rats with multiple feeding areas, multiple sound sources, high-resolution behavioral tracking, and simultaneous electrophysiological recordings. The paper provides detailed information about the construction of the RIFF and the software used to control it. To illustrate the flexibility of the RIFF, we describe two complex tasks implemented in the RIFF, a foraging task and a sound localization task. Rats quickly learned to obtain rewards in both tasks. Neurons in the auditory cortex as well as neurons in the auditory field in the posterior insula had sound-driven activity during behavior. Remarkably, neurons in both structures also showed sensitivity to non-auditory parameters such as location in the arena and head-to-body angle. CONCLUSIONS The RIFF provides insights into the cognitive capabilities and learning mechanisms of rats and opens the way to a better understanding of how brains control behavior. The ability to do so depends crucially on the combination of wireless electrophysiology and detailed behavioral documentation available in the RIFF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maciej M Jankowski
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences and the Department of Neurobiology, Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- BioTechMed Center, Multimedia Systems Department, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, Poland
| | - Ana Polterovich
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences and the Department of Neurobiology, Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Alex Kazakov
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences and the Department of Neurobiology, Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Johannes Niediek
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences and the Department of Neurobiology, Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Israel Nelken
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences and the Department of Neurobiology, Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
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Inayat S, McAllister BB, Whishaw IQ, Mohajerani MH. Hippocampal conjunctive and complementary CA1 populations relate sensory events to movement. iScience 2023; 26:106481. [PMID: 37096033 PMCID: PMC10121467 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2022] [Revised: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 03/18/2023] [Indexed: 04/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Hippocampal CA1 neurons respond to sensory stimuli during enforced immobility, movement, and their transitions in a new conveyor belt task. Head-fixed mice were exposed to light flashes or air streams while at rest, spontaneously moving, or running a fixed distance. Two-photon calcium imaging of CA1 neurons revealed that 62% of 3341 imaged cells were active during one or more of 20 sensorimotor events. Of these active cells, 17% were active for any given sensorimotor event, with a higher proportion during locomotion. The study found two types of cells: Conjunctive cells that were active across multiple events, and complementary cells that were active only during individual events, encoding novel sensorimotor events or their delayed repetitions. The configuration of these cells across changing sensorimotor events may signify the role of hippocampus in functional networks integrating sensory information with ongoing movement making it suitable for movement guidance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samsoon Inayat
- Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada
| | - Brendan B McAllister
- Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada
| | - Ian Q Whishaw
- Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada
| | - Majid H Mohajerani
- Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada
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Alonso I, Scheer I, Palacio-Manzano M, Frézel-Jacob N, Philippides A, Prsa M. Peripersonal encoding of forelimb proprioception in the mouse somatosensory cortex. Nat Commun 2023; 14:1866. [PMID: 37045825 PMCID: PMC10097678 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37575-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2022] [Accepted: 03/23/2023] [Indexed: 04/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Conscious perception of limb movements depends on proprioceptive neural responses in the somatosensory cortex. In contrast to tactile sensations, proprioceptive cortical coding is barely studied in the mammalian brain and practically non-existent in rodent research. To understand the cortical representation of this important sensory modality we developed a passive forelimb displacement paradigm in behaving mice and also trained them to perceptually discriminate where their limb is moved in space. We delineated the rodent proprioceptive cortex with wide-field calcium imaging and optogenetic silencing experiments during behavior. Our results reveal that proprioception is represented in both sensory and motor cortical areas. In addition, behavioral measurements and responses of layer 2/3 neurons imaged with two-photon microscopy reveal that passive limb movements are both perceived and encoded in the mouse cortex as a spatial direction vector that interfaces the limb with the body's peripersonal space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ignacio Alonso
- Department of Neuroscience and Movement Science, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Irina Scheer
- Department of Neuroscience and Movement Science, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Mélanie Palacio-Manzano
- Department of Neuroscience and Movement Science, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Noémie Frézel-Jacob
- Department of Neuroscience and Movement Science, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Antoine Philippides
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Mario Prsa
- Department of Neuroscience and Movement Science, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
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Long X, Zhang SJ. A novel somatosensory spatial navigation system outside the hippocampal formation. Cell Res 2021; 31:649-663. [PMID: 33462427 PMCID: PMC8169756 DOI: 10.1038/s41422-020-00448-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2018] [Accepted: 11/10/2020] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Spatially selective firing of place cells, grid cells, boundary vector/border cells and head direction cells constitutes the basic building blocks of a canonical spatial navigation system centered on the hippocampal-entorhinal complex. While head direction cells can be found throughout the brain, spatial tuning outside the hippocampal formation is often non-specific or conjunctive to other representations such as a reward. Although the precise mechanism of spatially selective firing activity is not understood, various studies show sensory inputs, particularly vision, heavily modulate spatial representation in the hippocampal-entorhinal circuit. To better understand the contribution of other sensory inputs in shaping spatial representation in the brain, we performed recording from the primary somatosensory cortex in foraging rats. To our surprise, we were able to detect the full complement of spatially selective firing patterns similar to that reported in the hippocampal-entorhinal network, namely, place cells, head direction cells, boundary vector/border cells, grid cells and conjunctive cells, in the somatosensory cortex. These newly identified somatosensory spatial cells form a spatial map outside the hippocampal formation and support the hypothesis that location information modulates body representation in the somatosensory cortex. Our findings provide transformative insights into our understanding of how spatial information is processed and integrated in the brain, as well as functional operations of the somatosensory cortex in the context of rehabilitation with brain-machine interfaces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyang Long
- grid.410570.70000 0004 1760 6682Department of Neurosurgery, Xinqiao Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400037 China
| | - Sheng-Jia Zhang
- grid.410570.70000 0004 1760 6682Department of Neurosurgery, Xinqiao Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400037 China
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Mair RG, Francoeur MJ, Gibson BM. Central Thalamic-Medial Prefrontal Control of Adaptive Responding in the Rat: Many Players in the Chamber. Front Behav Neurosci 2021; 15:642204. [PMID: 33897387 PMCID: PMC8060444 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.642204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2020] [Accepted: 03/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has robust afferent and efferent connections with multiple nuclei clustered in the central thalamus. These nuclei are elements in large-scale networks linking mPFC with the hippocampus, basal ganglia, amygdala, other cortical areas, and visceral and arousal systems in the brainstem that give rise to adaptive goal-directed behavior. Lesions of the mediodorsal nucleus (MD), the main source of thalamic input to middle layers of PFC, have limited effects on delayed conditional discriminations, like DMTP and DNMTP, that depend on mPFC. Recent evidence suggests that MD sustains and amplifies neuronal responses in mPFC that represent salient task-related information and is important for detecting and encoding contingencies between actions and their consequences. Lesions of rostral intralaminar (rIL) and ventromedial (VM) nuclei produce delay-independent impairments of egocentric DMTP and DNMTP that resemble effects of mPFC lesions on response speed and accuracy: results consistent with projections of rIL to striatum and VM to motor cortices. The ventral midline and anterior thalamic nuclei affect allocentric spatial cognition and memory consistent with their connections to mPFC and hippocampus. The dorsal midline nuclei spare DMTP and DNMTP. They have been implicated in behavioral-state control and response to salient stimuli in associative learning. mPFC functions are served during DNMTP by discrete populations of neurons with responses related to motor preparation, movements, lever press responses, reinforcement anticipation, reinforcement delivery, and memory delay. Population analyses show that different responses are timed so that they effectively tile the temporal interval from when DNMTP trials are initiated until the end. Event-related responses of MD neurons during DNMTP are predominantly related to movement and reinforcement, information important for DNMTP choice. These responses closely mirror the activity of mPFC neurons with similar responses. Pharmacological inactivation of MD and adjacent rIL affects the expression of diverse action- and outcome-related responses of mPFC neurons. Lesions of MD before training are associated with a shift away from movement-related responses in mPFC important for DNMTP choice. These results suggest that MD has short-term effects on the expression of event-related activity in mPFC and long-term effects that tune mPFC neurons to respond to task-specific information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert G Mair
- Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States
| | - Miranda J Francoeur
- Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States.,Neural Engineering and Translation Lab, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - Brett M Gibson
- Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States
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Fonseca E, de Lafuente V, Simon SA, Gutierrez R. Sucrose intensity coding and decision-making in rat gustatory cortices. eLife 2018; 7:e41152. [PMID: 30451686 PMCID: PMC6292697 DOI: 10.7554/elife.41152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2018] [Accepted: 11/16/2018] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Sucrose's sweet intensity is one attribute contributing to the overconsumption of high-energy palatable foods. However, it is not known how sucrose intensity is encoded and used to make perceptual decisions by neurons in taste-sensitive cortices. We trained rats in a sucrose intensity discrimination task and found that sucrose evoked a widespread response in neurons recorded in posterior-Insula (pIC), anterior-Insula (aIC), and Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Remarkably, only a few Intensity-selective neurons conveyed the most information about sucrose's intensity, indicating that for sweetness the gustatory system uses a compact and distributed code. Sucrose intensity was encoded in both firing-rates and spike-timing. The pIC, aIC, and OFC neurons tracked movement direction, with OFC neurons yielding the most robust response. aIC and OFC neurons encoded the subject's choices, whereas all three regions tracked reward omission. Overall, these multimodal areas provide a neural representation of perceived sucrose intensity, and of task-related information underlying perceptual decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Esmeralda Fonseca
- Laboratory of Neurobiology of Appetite, Department of PharmacologyCenter for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic InstituteMexico CityMexico
| | - Victor de Lafuente
- Institute of NeurobiologyNational Autonomous University of MexicoJuriquilla QuerétaroMexico
| | - Sidney A Simon
- Department of NeurobiologyDuke University Medical CenterDurhamUnited States
| | - Ranier Gutierrez
- Laboratory of Neurobiology of Appetite, Department of PharmacologyCenter for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic InstituteMexico CityMexico
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