Self Head-Restraining System
The system teaches mice to perform voluntary head restriction by automating the learning process, which improves the efficiency and accuracy of head-restricted rodent behavior.
- Mice learn voluntary head restriction in as little as two weeks
- The automated learning process removes experimenter bias and reduces experimenter labor
- Train up to 4 mice per day with a single platform
Automate Behavioral Mice Training for Head-Restrained Tasks
The ability to record neural activity during mouse behavior provides an opportunity to understand brain function at a new level of detail. Head-restrained behavioral assays in mice are perfect for this purpose because they allow real-time monitoring of neural circuits during complex operant behavior. However, traditionally, training mice to feel comfortable under head-restriction procedures has proven to be extremely laborious and time-consuming. Before head-restrained training procedures in mice, experimenters must habituate the mouse to the head-restriction process and can take up to several weeks without this system. Add training time for your head-restrained behavioral assays, and now you are looking at several months to train a single mouse to perform head-restrained operant behavior. Using the Self Head-Restraining Platform, you can cut down training time by 90%.
How the Self-Head Restraining System Works
The self-head-restraining platform automates the entire mouse head-restriction process through operant training principles. Mice are guided to walk through a narrowing corridor and into a head-latching stage that lowers by gravity. Once latched, mice can receive timed water rewards for the rest of the session. By attaching to the home cage, mice have extended access to the platform to learn voluntary head-restriction under lower stress conditions. This also reduces experimenter time and labor, allowing you to begin head-restrained training procedures much sooner.
Main setup
The Self Head-Restraining System attaches to the home cage, creating a low-stress environment and allowing mice to learn on their own time.
After self head-restriction, the latching unit automatically releases the mice after 20 minutes allowing them to return to the home cage.
Head-restriction unit
Weight scale unit for automatic weight measurement and equipped with a wheel and water delivery reward system.
Wheel
See the Self Head-Restraining System in action.
Previously training a mouse under head-fixation took me about 15 hours! Now with the platform, we have cut training time down to an hour and a half.
Publications
Aoki, R., Tsubota, T., Goya, Y., & Benucci, A. An automated platform for high-throughput mouse behavior and physiology with voluntary head-fixation. (2017). A Nature communications, 8(1), 1-9.19).
NEWS:
Moving neuroscience into the fast lane
“A new high-throughput system with an industrial approach can standardize experiments to facilitate reproducibility and data sharing.
At the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan, a two-year project from Andrea Benucci’s research group and O’Hara and Co LTD. has culminated in the construction and deployment of a high-throughput system to study mouse behavior and physiology. The system aims to deliver larger, standardized datasets, a reduction in the number of experimental animals, and time-savings through complete automation.”
Read the full post from the Science Daily.
Parts and Accessories
Ohara-self-restraint-Whole_setup_wheel
Front view of self-restraint platform
O’hara-Licking-unit-and-Wheel
Side view of self-restraint platform
O-hara-head-restraint-HeadLatch
Head fixation unit
DualCorridor-square
Dual corridor chambers
Ohara-task-forcer-water_supply_unit
Water Supply Unit (Range: 1-7 µL per lick)
Specifications
Platform Dimensions: 335 (W) x 210 (D) x 118 (H) mm
Corridor Dimensions: 3o (W) x 30 (H)
Compatible with our Task Studio Software
You want to collect, analyze, and disseminate data—not provide software support! With our proven Task Studio software, simply assemble your trial with flowchart-like simplicity, and configure your triggers and executors with checklist-like ease. And if other researchers want to reproduce your findings, simply direct them to use Task Studio, too. This will save you from the headaches of “free software support” that you’d never intended to offer.
Blog Entries
Factors that Influence Experimental Outcomes and How to Overcome Them
Experimental outcomes can be influenced by a variety of factors, some of which can be controlled for. Minimizing confounding factors is crucial to gathering reliable and repeatable results.
Mice Learn Voluntary Head-Restriction
In this video, we will walk you through how exactly mice learn to self head-restrain using the self head-restraining platform. The concept is quite simple and relies on operant or classical conditioning principles.
A tool to Combat the Current Reproducibility Crisis in Neuroscience
AMUZA’s tool, the Self Head-Restraining Platform, is Helping Combat the Current Reproducibility Crisis in Neuroscience. Teaches mice to train themselves.
Part II – Next stop – RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Tokyo, Japan.
Dr. Benucci and O’Hara designed the Self Head-Restraining Platform, a high throughput system for mouse behavior and neurophysiology.
Teaching Mice to Train Themselves : The Scoop on O’Hara’s New Behavioral Testing System
Understanding how neural circuits give rise to behavior is one of the most sought after questions in Neuroscience.