Dai H, Carey R J
VA Medical Center, Syracuse, NY.
J Neurosci Methods. 1994 Jul;53(1):29-34. doi: 10.1016/0165-0270(94)90141-4.
A new method was developed to measure locomotion and attention to a stimulus object in a typical open-field environment using a video image-analyzer system. A computer-generated central zone (CZ) composing 1/9 of the open-field floor area was monitored independently from the rest of the area. Intermittently, a 4 x 4 x 2 cm object was placed in the CZ. In 10 min test sessions, the presence of the object repeatedly and consistently increased the animal's time spent in the CZ as compared with tests when the object was absent. The presence of the object, however, did not increase either the number of entries to the CZ or overall locomotor activity. The object reliably elicited an investigatory response when the animal enter the CZ but otherwise was behaviorally neutral. Thus, by incorporating a stimulus object in a conventional open-field test environment, the present methodology extends the open-field test beyond the measurement of overall spontaneous activity to include an assessment of behavioral processes linked to attention mechanisms.
开发了一种新方法，使用视频图像分析系统在典型的旷场环境中测量动物的运动和对刺激物体的注意力。计算机生成的中央区域（CZ）占旷场地板面积的1/9，与场地的其余部分独立监测。间歇性地，将一个4×4×2厘米的物体放置在中央区域。在10分钟的测试过程中，与物体不存在时的测试相比，物体的存在反复且持续地增加了动物在中央区域花费的时间。然而，物体的存在并没有增加进入中央区域的次数或总体运动活动。当动物进入中央区域时，该物体可靠地引发了探究反应，但在其他情况下行为上是中性的。因此，通过在传统的旷场测试环境中加入一个刺激物体，本方法将旷场测试从总体自发活动的测量扩展到包括对与注意力机制相关的行为过程的评估。
