Lab Methods and Resources

We use homecage operant paradigms in which the mice live in the operant chambers (modified homecage equipped with levers, food dispenser, etc.) in a closed economy. Using both genetic and pharmacological manipulation, we use these to characterize the effect of neural manipulations on behavioral adaptation to different environments. The resulting data are rich and amenable to fitting to computational models. We are building a custom homecage touchscreen system that, in addition to the standard equipment, will use a touchscreen to present a wider variety of stimuli and provide more flexible manipulanda options.

We do a variety behavioral tests, including the accelerating rotarod, open field, forced swim test, sucrose preference, two-bottle conditioning, novel object recognition and simple maze behaviors, such as the plus maze for anxiety or the cross maze to dissociate place- and response-learning.

We maintain an array of genetically altered mouse lines, including several tissue specific are-recombinase lines, lines with floxed genes (e.g., insulin receptor, dopamine D2, adenosine 2A, beta2 nicotinic receptor), several reporter lines (tdTomato, EGFP), various knockdown lines, and some genetic tools, including floxed channel rhodopsin 2, floxed halorhodopsin, floxed DREADDs and others.