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| 5/9-Hole Box
for the rat and mouse |
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The Standard 5/9-Hole Box
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Sound/light attenuating
casing
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Ventilation fan
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Stainless steel and perspex
operant chamber
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Grid floor and removable
tray on baseboard
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Pellet or liquid dispenser
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Reinforcement tray
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Nine holes with lamps or
LEDs
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IR-beam detection of nose
poke
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Electronic brightness
control
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Houselight and loudspeaker
in roof
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10m cable
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IR activity monitoring
(mouse box only)
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| These are
the original 5/9 hole chambers systems. The rat chamber developed at
the University of Cambridge Dept of Experimental Psychology and the
mouse chamber at the Babraham Institute, Cambridge. Software of the 5
choice serial reaction time task [5CSRT] is available as part of the
BehaviourNet Control System.
The Applications
A novel variation on the conventional Operant chamber used
primarily for the serial 5-choice reaction time task. The nose-poke
response is rapidly trained and is easier than a lever-press for the
animal to execute. Nine responses can be used, rather than the usual
two, allowing for the study of response sequencing. Reaction times can
be separated from movement times by requiring the animal to hold its
nose in one hole until signalled to move to another. Lateralisation
can be studied by presenting brief stimuli to the periphery while the
animal is required to hold its nose in the central hole.
Discrimination can be studied parametrically by varying brightness and
position of stimulus, and attention can be tested with the use of
distracting lights or noises. These are just a few of the tasks to
which the apparatus has been successfully applied. For a review of
the 5-choice serial reaction time task see T.W Robbins,
Psychopharmacology, (2002) 163, 362-380.
For a full bibliography on the 5/9-hole box
click here.
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| 5/9-Hole Box
for the Mouse
The mouse 5/9 hole chambers (originally
designed at The Babraham Institute, Cambridge) is the only mouse operant chamber with
associated published data for an attentional task for mice (Humby,
Laird, Davies and Wilkinson, European Journal of Neuroscience, Vol.
11, pp. 2813-2823, 1999). The task – the serial 5-choice reaction time
task (also available in human and monkey CANTAB) - is a test of
sustained and selective attention, which has been well characterised
in the rat and has shown clinical validity in a variety of settings,
including attentional deficits in Alzheimer's disease patients.
The serial 5-choice reaction time task forms the first in what is
expected to be a growing set of operant based tests in mice, allowing
the exploitation of molecular genetics methods in unravelling the
genetic contribution to complex psychological and behavioural
processes.
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| Sound
Attenuating Chamber |
| Built of medium density fibreboard (MDF) and lined with a protective acylic coating against urine ingress and staining.
The 5/9-hole box sits on a baseboard, which slides easily in and out for easy loading of animals and easy cleaning and maintenance. External connectors for power and the control system are mounted with a ventilation fan. An observation optic is in the door. |
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Control System The 5/9-hole boxes have a high I/O requirement and BNC hardware is designed to provide the required control and data storage. There is a choice of software, either the menu driven BNC Icon or the Whisker software for power and flexibility to program in your preferred language.
Pre-written standard schedules are also available for both these software types.
Standard Schedule
for the 5/9-Hole Box
Serial 5-Choice Reaction Time task
We have BNC Icon pre-written serial 5-choice reaction time tasks available for both the rat and the mouse. The tasks have been written in collaboration with Prof. Trevor Robbins (Cambridge University, UK) and Prof. Lawrence Wilkinson (University of Cardiff) and include advice on shaping the animals. The tasks variations include: variable ITI, variable stimulus brightness, variable stimulus duration and variable temporal position of a distracter. All parameters are independently selectable for each subject and the details are kept in a file for each subject.
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