Title: Standard Operating Procedure – Visuomotor Conditional Learning (VMCL)
Author: MouseTRAP Team
Date: 11/28/2023
Version: 1
Abstract: Many neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease are characterized by an impaired cognitive ability to discriminate between environmental stimuli which is known to be associated with impaired patient autonomy and poor quality of life. One endophenotype commonly observed is the inability to make fast and automatic visuomotor associations that are thought to be critical for stimulus-response habit learning. To probe this behaviour in preclinical animal models, the VMCL task is performed in touchscreen-based automated chambers with 3 response locations (left, right and centre windows) and 2 distinct images using food reinforcers to maintain performance. Each image is assigned a discrete and conditional visuomotor association of the type of ‘If visual stimulus A is presented, make motor response X; if visual stimulus B is presented, make motor response Y”.
DOI: 10.58064/ceae-s252
Link to Full SOP: mVMCL-v2
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