Rigosa Jacopo, Lucantonio Alessandro, Noselli Giovanni, Fassihi Arash, Zorzin Erik, Manzino Fabrizio, Pulecchi Francesca, Diamond Mathew E
International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy.
Elife. 2017 Jun 14;6:e25290. doi: 10.7554/eLife.25290.
Visualization and tracking of the facial whiskers is required in an increasing number of rodent studies. Although many approaches have been employed, only high-speed videography has proven adequate for measuring whisker motion and deformation during interaction with an object. However, whisker visualization and tracking is challenging for multiple reasons, primary among them the low contrast of the whisker against its background. Here, we demonstrate a fluorescent dye method suitable for visualization of one or more rat whiskers. The process makes the dyed whisker(s) easily visible against a dark background. The coloring does not influence the behavioral performance of rats trained on a vibrissal vibrotactile discrimination task, nor does it affect the whiskers' mechanical properties.
在越来越多的啮齿动物研究中，需要对面部触须进行可视化和跟踪。尽管已经采用了许多方法，但只有高速摄像被证明足以测量触须与物体相互作用时的运动和变形。然而，触须的可视化和跟踪具有挑战性，原因有很多，其中主要原因是触须与其背景之间的对比度较低。在这里，我们展示了一种适用于可视化一只或多只大鼠触须的荧光染料方法。该过程使染色的触须在深色背景下易于可见。染色不会影响接受触须振动触觉辨别任务训练的大鼠的行为表现，也不会影响触须的机械性能。
