Complete Fear Conditioning Suite for Rats and Mice

大鼠和小鼠的完整恐惧调节套件

• 批准号: 7794560
• 负责人: Michael S Fanselow
• 金额: $ 12.54万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-08-11 至 2011-08-10
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7794560
• 关键词: Age; Animals; Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Arts; Behavioral Genetics; Behavioral Research; Boxing; Collaborations; Communities; Computer software; Core Facility; Development; Ensure; Equipment; Extinction (Psychology); Faculty; Freezing; Fright; Funding; Gene Expression; Generations; Genes; Home environment; House mice; Human; Instruction; Knockout Mice; Knowledge; Laboratory Animal Medicine; Learning; Manufacturer Name; Memory; Modeling; Mus; Quarantine; Rattus; Research; Research Institute; Research Personnel; Resources; Site; System; Testing; Time; Validation; Veterinarians; animal breeding; behavior test; brain research; conditioned fear; cost; drug mechanism; flexibility; improved; instrument; member; programs; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; research study

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Behavioral Testing Core (BTC) Facility is a valuable resource for the UCLA scientific community. The UCLA Brain Research Institute membership consists of over 300 faculty members from 26 academic departments. The BTC provides the space, equipment, and instruction necessary for the behavioral testing needs of UCLA researchers. The type of assistance provided by the BTC enables behavioral testing for the researchers that cannot form collaborations with one of the few labs on campus that specialize in behavioral research. The BTC is requesting one-time equipment funding to greatly improve the fear conditioning setup which is widely used to study learning and memory mechanisms, drug and gene effects on fear and anxiety. The current BTC fear conditioning equipment requires replacement. The Med Associates equipment currently in use is outdated and unreliable. The automated scoring programs are first-generation "home-made" systems that do not have the power, flexibility and accuracy of state-of- the-art systems. In order to ensure that researchers get usable results, the BTC would like to provide better equipment for this task. The requested funds would be used to replace the ineffective equipment with state of-the -art instrument from Med Associates, the most-cited manufacturer of fear equipment. Their new Video Freeze software is highly reliable for automated freezing studies. It is the only system that was developed with validation of an expert in fear conditioning (Dr.Stephan Anagnostaras, UCSD). The requested funds cover 12 fear conditioning setups (boxes), controlling software, and computer. Crucial for research in fear extinction is the use of more than 2 contexts to understand how fear can be renewed, re-instated and spontaneously recovered following extinction. These boxes have interchangeable parts that allow the formation of multiple contexts and testing for both rats and mice. In addition, we plan to use 6 of these boxes within the mouse housing room suite to cut the quarantine time (normally 6- 8 weeks) of animals bred off-site (e.g., knock-out mice from a collaborator). This would enable PIs to conduct experiments that are time sensitive (e.g., age and time-dependent gene expression studies). This approach will also allow PI's to cut costs on animal per diems from a prolonged quarantine period. This plan has been developed in conjunction with campus veterinarian Dr.Marcelo Couto and the UCLA Division of Laboratory animals and Medicine. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Fear conditioning is a robust model of fear and anxiety in rats and mice. The use of such a model will allow for a more defined understanding of the neural, genetic, behavioral components underlying human anxiety disorders. Such knowledge would allow for the developments of better treatments.

描述（由申请人提供）：行为测试核心（BTC）设施是UCLA科学界的宝贵资源。加州大学洛杉矶分校脑研究所的成员由来自26个学术部门的300多名教职员工组成。 BTC提供了UCLA研究人员行为测试需求所需的空间，设备和指导。 BTC提供的援助类型可以为研究人员提供行为测试，这些研究人员无法与专门从事行为研究的校园中为数不多的实验室之一进行合作。 BTC要求一次性设备资金，以大大改善恐惧调节设置，该设置广泛用于研究学习和记忆机制，药物和基因对恐惧和焦虑的影响。当前的BTC恐惧调节设备需要更换。当前正在使用的Med Associates设备已过时且不可靠。自动评分程序是第一代“自制”系统，这些系统没有最新系统的功能，灵活性和准确性。为了确保研究人员获得可用的结果，BTC希望为这项任务提供更好的设备。要求的资金将用于用最引用的恐惧设备制造商Med Associates的仪器来代替无效的设备。他们的新视频冻结软件对于自动冻结研究非常可靠。它是唯一通过验证恐惧调节专家（Stephan Anagnostaras，UCSD）验证的系统。请求的资金涵盖了12个恐惧调节设置（框），控制软件和计算机。对于恐惧灭绝的研究至关重要的是使用2个以上的情况来了解如何在灭绝后如何更新，重新审查和自发恢复恐惧。这些盒子具有可互换的零件，可以形成多个上下文并为大鼠和小鼠进行测试。此外，我们计划在小鼠外壳套房中使用其中6个盒子，以切断隔离的动物（例如，合作者的敲除鼠标）的隔离时间（通常为6-8周）。这将使PI能够进行时间敏感的实验（例如，年龄和时间依赖性基因表达研究）。这种方法还将允许PI从长时间的隔离期开始削减每个Diem的动物成本。该计划是与校园兽医Marcelo Couto博士和UCLA实验室动物与医学部的共同制定的。 公共卫生相关性：恐惧调节是大鼠和小鼠恐惧和焦虑的强大模型。这种模型的使用将使人们对人类焦虑症背后的神经，遗传，行为成分有更明确的理解。这样的知识将允许更好的治疗方法的发展。