Skip to content

Training on Reward Based Conditioning

Jump to bottom
Harsha Gurnani edited this page May 11, 2021 · 1 revision

This is an ongoing collection based on Harsha's experience. The full training procedure is for trace conditioning with a rewarded and an unrewarded (control) sound cue.

Timeline for full task is 2-3 weeks, and almost all mice seem to learn it, although there is individual variability in learning rate and peak performance.

Step 0: Water Restriction

Time: 10 days

  1. Mice need to have fully recovered from chronic implant surgery (necessary for head fixation). Recommended: at least 1-2 weeks post recovery.

  2. Before restriction, animals need to be weighed (at least 3 different days) to determine their baseline weight.

  3. Subsequently, mice are put on water restriction routine with roughly a water (or hydrogel) dose of 0.4-0.6g/10g BW for adult mice. Refer to detailed protocol sheets for exact weight coefficients. They need to be weighed and monitored daily, and a scoring sheet filled in. Best practice is to have a regular time for water provision (i.e. at 23-25h interval).

  4. They need to maintain steady weight for at least 7 days before training.

Step 1: Acclimatization

Time: 2-4 days

  1. Mice need to be acclimatized to the tube, head-fixation apparatus, a spout for licking etc. For example, let mice explore the tube and give them water from a (blunt) syringe while they are sitting there. This can be done in the previous phase of 1 week, as long as there is no head-fixation.

  2. Mice can then be head-fixed for short-intervals on the rig for water consumption using the Licking protocol. Encourage them by releasing some drops of water, or bring their regular water syringe near the spout on the rig. Move the spout very close to their mouth so it's easier to lick accidently as well.

Suggested parameters:

StopLickTime = 0.1 sec, RewardConsumption = 1.0 sec, WaterValveTime = 0.05 sec.

  1. When mice are not stressed and licking continuously, and doing lot of their water consumption through that (80-200 drops), time to move them to training. Some mice are much more calm and this can happen on the same day itself after about 100 drops.

HG Tips Have a gap of 1-4 hours before supplementing their water consumption with hydrogel - don't make them complacent about getting their water needs met! Cruel or tough love??

Clone this wiki locally