Cargando…

Floor vibrations for motivation and feedback in the rat vibration actuating search task

Motivating rodents to perform cognitive tasks often relies on the application of aversive stimuli. The Vibration Actuating Search Task (VAST) is a novel open-field task in which gradient floor vibration provides motivation for the rodent to navigate in the direction of diminishing vibration to an un...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lawrence-Sidebottom, Darian, Schmidt, Michelle A., Harvey, Daniel O., Van Dongen, Hans P. A., Davis, Christopher J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8475976/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34570800
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257980
_version_ 1784575504480731136
author Lawrence-Sidebottom, Darian
Schmidt, Michelle A.
Harvey, Daniel O.
Van Dongen, Hans P. A.
Davis, Christopher J.
author_facet Lawrence-Sidebottom, Darian
Schmidt, Michelle A.
Harvey, Daniel O.
Van Dongen, Hans P. A.
Davis, Christopher J.
author_sort Lawrence-Sidebottom, Darian
collection PubMed
description Motivating rodents to perform cognitive tasks often relies on the application of aversive stimuli. The Vibration Actuating Search Task (VAST) is a novel open-field task in which gradient floor vibration provides motivation for the rodent to navigate in the direction of diminishing vibration to an unmarked target destination. Using floor vibration as a motivational stimulus may overcome several of the potential confounds associated with stimuli used in other tasks. In a series of three experiments, we determined whether (1) rats exhibit place preference for floor vibration over other aversive stimuli (i.e., water, foot shock, and bright light), (2) exposure to floor vibration is associated with a lower corticosterone response than exposure to these other stimuli, (3) rats successfully acquire the VAST, and (4) VAST performance is sensitive to 6 h of sleep deprivation (SD). Our results showed that rats exhibited place preference for vibration over water, foot shock, and bright light environments, and that corticosterone levels were lower in rats exposed to vibration than those exposed to water. VAST performance also significantly improved over two days of testing for some metrics, and SD impaired VAST performance. Overall, we conclude that (1) rats exhibit place preference for vibration over other stimuli commonly used to motivate task performance, (2) the vibrations employed by the VAST produce lower concentrations of circulating corticosterone than forced swimming, (3) rats can learn to use gradient floor vibration as a mode of performance feedback within two days of testing, and (4) VAST performance is substantially impaired by SD. Thus, the VAST is an effective and practical testbed for studying the mechanisms by which SD causes deficits in feedback-dependent decision making.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8475976
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-84759762021-09-28 Floor vibrations for motivation and feedback in the rat vibration actuating search task Lawrence-Sidebottom, Darian Schmidt, Michelle A. Harvey, Daniel O. Van Dongen, Hans P. A. Davis, Christopher J. PLoS One Research Article Motivating rodents to perform cognitive tasks often relies on the application of aversive stimuli. The Vibration Actuating Search Task (VAST) is a novel open-field task in which gradient floor vibration provides motivation for the rodent to navigate in the direction of diminishing vibration to an unmarked target destination. Using floor vibration as a motivational stimulus may overcome several of the potential confounds associated with stimuli used in other tasks. In a series of three experiments, we determined whether (1) rats exhibit place preference for floor vibration over other aversive stimuli (i.e., water, foot shock, and bright light), (2) exposure to floor vibration is associated with a lower corticosterone response than exposure to these other stimuli, (3) rats successfully acquire the VAST, and (4) VAST performance is sensitive to 6 h of sleep deprivation (SD). Our results showed that rats exhibited place preference for vibration over water, foot shock, and bright light environments, and that corticosterone levels were lower in rats exposed to vibration than those exposed to water. VAST performance also significantly improved over two days of testing for some metrics, and SD impaired VAST performance. Overall, we conclude that (1) rats exhibit place preference for vibration over other stimuli commonly used to motivate task performance, (2) the vibrations employed by the VAST produce lower concentrations of circulating corticosterone than forced swimming, (3) rats can learn to use gradient floor vibration as a mode of performance feedback within two days of testing, and (4) VAST performance is substantially impaired by SD. Thus, the VAST is an effective and practical testbed for studying the mechanisms by which SD causes deficits in feedback-dependent decision making. Public Library of Science 2021-09-27 /pmc/articles/PMC8475976/ /pubmed/34570800 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257980 Text en © 2021 Lawrence-Sidebottom et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lawrence-Sidebottom, Darian
Schmidt, Michelle A.
Harvey, Daniel O.
Van Dongen, Hans P. A.
Davis, Christopher J.
Floor vibrations for motivation and feedback in the rat vibration actuating search task
title Floor vibrations for motivation and feedback in the rat vibration actuating search task
title_full Floor vibrations for motivation and feedback in the rat vibration actuating search task
title_fullStr Floor vibrations for motivation and feedback in the rat vibration actuating search task
title_full_unstemmed Floor vibrations for motivation and feedback in the rat vibration actuating search task
title_short Floor vibrations for motivation and feedback in the rat vibration actuating search task
title_sort floor vibrations for motivation and feedback in the rat vibration actuating search task
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8475976/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34570800
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257980
work_keys_str_mv AT lawrencesidebottomdarian floorvibrationsformotivationandfeedbackintheratvibrationactuatingsearchtask
AT schmidtmichellea floorvibrationsformotivationandfeedbackintheratvibrationactuatingsearchtask
AT harveydanielo floorvibrationsformotivationandfeedbackintheratvibrationactuatingsearchtask
AT vandongenhanspa floorvibrationsformotivationandfeedbackintheratvibrationactuatingsearchtask
AT davischristopherj floorvibrationsformotivationandfeedbackintheratvibrationactuatingsearchtask