Semelidou Ourania, Acevedo Summer F, Skoulakis Efthimios M C
Division of Neuroscience, Institute of Basic Biomedical Research, Biomedical Sciences Research Centre "Alexander Fleming", Vari, Greece.
School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece.
Bio Protoc. 2019 Jun 5;9(11):e3259. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3259.
Habituation is the process whereby perceptual changes alter the value of environmental stimuli, enabling salience filtering. This behavioral response decrement is a form of non-associative learning, where the subject learns about the stimulus and does not involve sensory adaptation, sensory or motor fatigue. The range of behavioral responses in led to the development of a number of habituation paradigms addressing various sensory modalities. Habituation of osmotactic responses has previously been measured with the Y-maze test and required 30 min of odor exposure. Here, we describe an olfactory habituation assay utilizing the widely used in associative learning paradigms T-maze. Continuous or repetitive odor exposure for 4 min is adequate to attenuate osmotactic responses both to attractive and aversive odors. Importantly, the decreased response conforms to habitation parameters, presenting dishabituation and spontaneous recovery. This assay allows the study of habituation after brief odor exposure, but also discriminates between the two distinct phases of the response, an initial habituation latency period followed by habituation. In addition, the characterization of the neuronal circuits implicated in each phase facilitates further study of the molecular components underlying this process.
习惯化是指感知变化改变环境刺激的价值，从而实现显著性过滤的过程。这种行为反应的减少是一种非联想学习形式，在此过程中，主体了解刺激，且不涉及感觉适应、感觉或运动疲劳。行为反应的范围促使人们开发了多种针对不同感觉模态的习惯化范式。此前，渗透压反应的习惯化是通过Y迷宫测试来测量的，需要30分钟的气味暴露时间。在此，我们描述了一种嗅觉习惯化测定方法，该方法利用了在联想学习范式中广泛使用的T迷宫。连续或重复4分钟的气味暴露足以减弱对吸引性和厌恶性气味的渗透压反应。重要的是，反应的降低符合习惯化参数，表现出去习惯化和自发恢复。该测定方法不仅可以研究短暂气味暴露后的习惯化，还可以区分反应的两个不同阶段，即初始习惯化潜伏期和随后的习惯化阶段。此外，对每个阶段所涉及的神经回路进行表征有助于进一步研究这一过程背后的分子成分。
