Automated Touchscreen-Piezo Monitoring of Mouse Cognition, Activity and Sleep

自动触摸屏压电监测鼠标认知、活动和睡眠

• 批准号: 7434026
• 负责人: Xinmin Simon Xie
• 金额: $ 20.05万
• 依托单位: AFASCI, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-06-01 至 2011-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7434026
• 关键词: Acute; Adverse effects; Algorithms; Alzheimer' s Disease; Amnesia; Animal Behavior; Animals; Anxiety; Automation; Award; Basic Science; Beds; Behavior; Behavior assessment; Behavioral; Behavioral Assay; Behavioral Sciences; Benchmarking; Biological Assay; Biosensor; Brain; Chronic; Circadian Rhythms; Clinic; Cognition; Cognitive; Complement; Computers; Data; Data Analyses; Dementia; Development; Devices; Diazepam; Discrimination; Disease; Evaluation; Food; Foundations; Funding; Grant; Home environment; Housing; Huntington Disease; Impaired cognition; Laboratories; Learning; Light; Locomotion; MK801; Marketing; Mathematics; Memory; Mental Depression; Mental disorders; Methods; Monitor; Monkeys; Motor Activity; Mus; N-Methylaspartate; NIH Program Announcements; Nerve Degeneration; Neurodegenerative Disorders; Neurosciences; Parkinson Disease; Patients; Performance; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Phase; Phase II Clinical Trials; Phenotype; Polysomnography; Preventive Medicine; Procedures; Radial; Rattus; Research; Research Personnel; Rodent; Schizophrenia; Series; Sleep; Sleep Deprivation; Sleep Disorders; Small Business Funding Mechanisms; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Stress; System; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Therapeutic; Time; Touch sensation; Training; Upper arm; Validation; Visual; Wireless Technology; base; behavior test; brain behavior; cost; data acquisition; disability; drinking; drug testing; engineering design; graphical user interface; healthy volunteer; high throughput analysis; human data; improved; innovation; instrument; morris water maze; mutant mouse model; neurobehavior; neurobehavioral; neuropsychiatry; novel; novel strategies; programs; prototype; scale up; sensor; sensory gating; software development; tool; touchscreen

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Millions of people suffer chronic neurodegeneration, leading to Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Millions more suffer acute cognitive impairment from sleep deprivation, stress, circadian disturbances, and psychiatric disorders. Many medication side effects impair cognition, for example diazepam causing amnesia. To develop better therapies and decrease medication side effects, researchers need new testing methods and instruments. Currently, three of the most commonly used behavioral cognitive tasks, the Morris water maze, the radial-arm and the Barnes mazes in rodents primarily assess spatial memory. Since different behavioral assays always require different specialized techniques and apparatuses, researchers rarely conduct simultaneous assessments of cognition and basic neurobehaviors such as sleep, known to influence cognition. Visual discrimination using a touchscreen method, frequently used in clinics, has been adapted recently for mouse cognition assessment in Dr. Rothblat's laboratory (the co-PI). However, no standardized and automated touchscreen apparatuses for cognitive assays are commercially available. Here we propose to incorporate the touchscreen method with integrated sensor technologies to create an instrumented homecage, termed the SmartCageTM. Researchers using the SmartCage can conduct behavioral cognitive testing, and simultaneously monitor sleep and wake activity in mice at their homecages. Our Specific Aims are to: 1. Design and engineer a series of integrated circuit and microcontroller based wireless modular devices (modules) for cognitive and basic neurobehavioral assessments in a mouse homecage. These modules include the touchscreen for cognitive tasks, infrared (IR) matrices for positional and locomotor detections, and piezoelectric sensors for sleep/wake monitoring. 2. Develop a uniform graphic user interface and intuitive programs to enable automation of the touchscreen procedure, data acquisition, and integrative analysis of cognition with other neurobehaviors. 3. Evaluate the capabilities and limitations of the SmartCage by performing feasibility tests on the prototype, and benchmark tests against the original touchscreen apparatus using a mutant mouse model (rl-/+) and the NMDA antagonist MK801 known for its effects on cognition and locomotion. This versatile and habitable SmartCage will provide visual-discrimination cognitive testing and enable integration testing of cognition with other aspects of behavior, such as sleep and wake activity, thus shedding light on the interdependence of cognition and other neurobehaviors. Our novel approach is flexible, scalable, and provides a foundation for a high-throughput cognitive assay system to be developed in a Phase II study. 7. PROJECT NARRITIVE Millions of people suffer Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, yet there are no preventive medicines and effective treatments. To develop better therapies, we need better testing technology. Here we propose to develop an automated touchscreen-piezo toolkit for testing drug effects on animal learning and memory effectively, which will complement to and enhance the current cognitive assays.

描述（由申请人提供）：数百万人患有慢性神经退行性疾病，导致阿尔茨海默病和其他痴呆症。还有数百万人因睡眠不足、压力、昼夜节律紊乱和精神疾病而遭受急性认知障碍。许多药物副作用会损害认知，例如地西泮会导致健忘症。为了开发更好的疗法并减少药物副作用，研究人员需要新的测试方法和仪器。目前，啮齿类动物最常用的三种行为认知任务：莫里斯水迷宫、放射臂迷宫和巴恩斯迷宫主要评估空间记忆。由于不同的行为分析总是需要不同的专门技术和仪器，研究人员很少同时评估认知和基本神经行为，例如睡眠，已知会影响认知。 Rothblat 博士实验室（联合 PI）最近采用临床上经常使用的触摸屏方法进行视觉辨别，用于小鼠认知评估。然而，目前还没有用于认知测定的标准化和自动化触摸屏装置在商业上可用。在这里，我们建议将触摸屏方法与集成传感器技术相结合，创建一个名为 SmartCageTM 的仪表化家庭笼。使用 SmartCage 的研究人员可以进行行为认知测试，并同时监测家中小鼠的睡眠和觉醒活动。我们的具体目标是： 1. 设计和制造一系列基于集成电路和微控制器的无线模块化设备（模块），用于小鼠笼中的认知和基本神经行为评估。这些模块包括用于认知任务的触摸屏、用于位置和运动检测的红外 (IR) 矩阵以及用于睡眠/唤醒监测的压电传感器。 2. 开发统一的图形用户界面和直观的程序，以实现触摸屏程序、数据采集以及认知与其他神经行为的综合分析的自动化。 3. 通过对原型进行可行性测试来评估 SmartCage 的功能和局限性，并使用突变小鼠模型 (rl-/+) 和以其对认知和运动影响而闻名的 NMDA 拮抗剂 MK801 针对原始触摸屏设备进行基准测试。这种多功能且适合居住的SmartCage将提供视觉辨别认知测试，并实现认知与其他行为方面（例如睡眠和清醒活动）的集成测试，从而揭示认知与其他神经行为的相互依赖性。我们的新颖方法灵活、可扩展，并为二期研究中开发的高通量认知分析系统奠定了基础。 7. 项目叙述 数百万人患有阿尔茨海默病和其他痴呆症，但没有预防药物和有效的治疗方法。为了开发更好的疗法，我们需要更好的测试技术。在这里，我们建议开发一种自动触摸屏压电工具包，用于有效测试药物对动物学习和记忆的影响，这将补充和增强当前的认知分析。