A tactile discrimination task to study neuronal dynamics in freely-moving mice

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Science
• Sensory Systems

Background:

• Head-fixed rodent models limit naturalistic study of perception and learning.
• Developing tasks for freely moving animals is crucial for ethological relevance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel whisker-dependent go/no-go discrimination task for freely moving mice.
• To enable high-resolution electrophysiology and calcium imaging during naturalistic behavior.
• To investigate tactile thresholds, rule reversals, and behavioral flexibility.

Main Methods:

• A custom-built, automated linear platform for foraging and discrimination.
• Whisker-dependent go/no-go task involving aperture width discrimination.
• Simultaneous high-resolution electrophysiology and calcium imaging in freely moving mice.

Main Results:

• Mice rapidly learned to discriminate aperture widths.
• Neural recordings showed distributed tactile coding across the thalamocortical system.
• Barrel cortex activity demonstrated emerging aperture selectivity during learning.

Conclusions:

• The developed task is effective for studying sensory processing and learning in ethologically relevant conditions.
• Cortical involvement is critical for learning and executing the sensory discrimination task.
• This platform facilitates detailed neural investigations of perception and learning in naturalistic settings.