Wong Carmen, Lomber Stephen G
Cerebral Systems Laboratory, University of Western Ontario; Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Western Ontario;
Cerebral Systems Laboratory, University of Western Ontario; Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Western Ontario; Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario; Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Western Ontario; Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario.
J Vis Exp. 2017 Dec 11(130):56196. doi: 10.3791/56196.
On complex, naturalistic terrain, sensory information about an environmental obstacle can be used to rapidly adjust locomotor movements for avoidance. For example, in the cat, visual information about an impending obstacle can modulate stepping for avoidance. Locomotor adaptation can also occur independent of vision, as sudden tactile inputs to the leg by an expected obstacle can modify the stepping of all four legs for avoidance. Such complex locomotor coordination involves supraspinal structures, such as the parietal cortex. This protocol describes the use of reversible, cooling-induced cortical deactivation to assess parietal cortex contributions to memory-guided obstacle locomotion in the cat. Small cooling loops, known as cryoloops, are specially shaped to deactivate discrete regions of interest to assess their contributions to an overt behavior. Such methods have been used to elucidate the role of parietal area 5 in memory-guided obstacle avoidance in the cat.
在复杂的自然环境中，有关环境障碍物的感官信息可用于快速调整运动动作以避免碰撞。例如，在猫身上，关于即将到来的障碍物的视觉信息可以调节步幅以避免碰撞。运动适应也可以在没有视觉的情况下发生，因为预期障碍物对腿部的突然触觉输入可以改变四条腿的步幅以避免碰撞。这种复杂的运动协调涉及脊髓上的结构，如顶叶皮层。本方案描述了使用可逆的、冷却诱导的皮层失活来评估顶叶皮层对猫记忆引导的障碍物运动的贡献。小型冷却环，即冷冻环，形状特殊，可使离散的感兴趣区域失活，以评估它们对明显行为的贡献。此类方法已被用于阐明猫顶叶5区在记忆引导的避障行为中的作用。
