Department of Zoology and Department of Statistics and Operations Research, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Dec 15;106(50):21335-40. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0812513106. Epub 2009 Nov 23.
Exploration is a central component of human and animal behavior that has been studied in rodents for almost a century. The measures used by neuroscientists to characterize full-blown exploration are limited in exposing the dynamics of the exploratory process, leaving the morphogenesis of its structure and meaning hidden. By unfettering exploration from constraints imposed by hunger, thirst, coercion, and the confines of small cage and short session, using advanced computational tools, we reveal its meaning in the operational world of the mouse. Exploration consists of reiterated roundtrips of increasing amplitude and freedom, involving an increase in the number of independent dimensions along which the mouse moves (macro degrees of freedom). This measurable gradient can serve as a standard reference scale for the developmental dynamics of some aspects of the mouse's emotional-cognitive state and for the study of the interface between behavior and the neurophysiologic and genetic processes mediating it.
探索是人类和动物行为的核心组成部分,在啮齿类动物中已经研究了近一个世纪。神经科学家用来描述完全探索的测量方法在揭示探索过程的动态方面是有限的,这使得其结构和意义的形态发生仍然隐藏着。通过使用先进的计算工具,从饥饿、口渴、强制和小笼子和短时间的限制中解放探索,我们揭示了它在老鼠的操作世界中的意义。探索由越来越大的幅度和自由度的反复往返组成,涉及老鼠移动的独立维度数量的增加(宏观自由度)。这个可测量的梯度可以作为老鼠情绪认知状态某些方面的发展动态以及行为与调节它的神经生理和遗传过程之间的界面的研究的标准参考尺度。