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Updated: May 10, 2025

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Enhancing Visual Discrimination Task: Optimized Mouse Motivation in the Touchscreen Paradigm.

Jeremy Jehl1, Fabrice Riet1,2, Aline Simonet1,2

  • 1Unistra, CNRS, INSERM, Institut de Génétique Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC), Illkirch-Graffenstaden, France.

Current Protocols
|April 25, 2025
PubMed
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Using citric acid water in touchscreen tasks motivates mice for cognitive tests, reducing stress and shortening learning times without weight loss. This welfare-friendly method enhances rodent cognitive research.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Animal Behavior
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Mouse models are crucial for studying gene function, brain development, and behavior.
  • Traditional cognitive tests in mice often use stressful, aversive methods.
  • Automated touchscreen platforms offer standardized, less stressful cognitive assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate citric acid (CA) water as a welfare-friendly motivator for touchscreen cognitive tasks in mice.
  • To reduce stress associated with traditional water restriction methods.
  • To enhance motivation and learning efficiency in rodent cognitive testing.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a touchscreen visual discrimination task with wild-type C57BL/6J mice.
  • Administered citric acid water during training days and plain water on weekends.
Keywords:
learningmotivationrodentstouchscreenworking memory

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  • Assessed learning phase duration, weight changes, and task engagement.

    • Main Results:

    • Citric acid water significantly reduced the learning phase duration for the visual discrimination task.
    • Mice showed strong commitment and engagement in the pattern dissociation task.
    • No significant weight loss was observed in mice receiving citric acid water.

    Conclusions:

    • Citric acid water serves as an effective and welfare-friendly alternative to water restriction for motivating mice in touchscreen cognitive tasks.
    • This method minimizes stress while maintaining or improving learning efficiency.
    • The approach supports cross-species cognitive research by improving rodent behavioral assessment standardization and welfare.