Schwarz Cornelius, Hentschke Harald, Butovas Sergejus, Haiss Florent, Stüttgen Maik C, Gerdjikov Todor V, Bergner Caroline G, Waiblinger Christian
Systems Neurophysiology Group, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Germany.
Somatosens Mot Res. 2010;27(4):131-48. doi: 10.3109/08990220.2010.513111. Epub 2010 Oct 18.
This paper describes experimental techniques with head-fixed, operantly conditioned rodents that allow the control of stimulus presentation and tracking of motor output at hitherto unprecedented levels of spatio-temporal precision. Experimental procedures for the surgery and behavioral training are presented. We place particular emphasis on potential pitfalls using these procedures in order to assist investigators who intend to engage in this type of experiment. We argue that head-fixed rodent models, by allowing the combination of methodologies from molecular manipulations, intracellular electrophysiology, and imaging to behavioral measurements, will be instrumental in combining insights into the functional neuronal organization at different levels of observation. Provided viable behavioral methods are implemented, model systems based on rodents will be complementary to current primate models--the latter providing highest comparability with the human brain, while the former offer hugely advanced methodologies on the lower levels of organization, for example, genetic alterations, intracellular electrophysiology, and imaging.
本文描述了对头部固定、经操作性条件反射的啮齿动物进行实验的技术，这些技术能够以前所未有的时空精度控制刺激呈现并追踪运动输出。文中介绍了手术及行为训练的实验程序。我们特别强调使用这些程序时可能存在的陷阱，以帮助打算进行此类实验的研究人员。我们认为，头部固定的啮齿动物模型通过将分子操作、细胞内电生理学和成像等方法与行为测量相结合，将有助于在不同观察层面整合对功能性神经元组织的见解。只要实施可行的行为方法，基于啮齿动物的模型系统将与当前的灵长类动物模型互为补充——后者与人类大脑具有最高的可比性，而前者在较低组织层面提供了极为先进的方法，例如基因改变、细胞内电生理学和成像。
