The ability to dynamically control a behavioral task based on real-time animal behavior is an important feature for experimental neuroscientists. However, designing automated boxes for behavioral ...studies requires a coordinated combination of mechanical, electronic, and software design skills which can challenge even the best engineers, and for that reason used to be out of reach for the majority of experimental neurobiology and behavioral pharmacology researchers. Due to parallel advances in open-source hardware and software developed for neuroscience researchers, by neuroscience researchers, the landscape has now changed significantly. Here, we discuss powerful approaches to the study of behavior using examples and tutorials in the Bonsai visual programming language, towards designing simple neuroscience experiments that can help researchers immediately get started. This language makes it easy for researchers, even without programming experience, to combine the operation of several open-source devices in parallel and design their own integrated custom solutions, enabling unique and flexible approaches to the study of behavior, including video tracking of behavior and closed-loop electrophysiology.
The ability to control a behavioral task or stimulate neural activity based on animal behavior in real-time is an important tool for experimental neuroscientists. Ideally, such tools are noninvasive, ...low-latency, and provide interfaces to trigger external hardware based on posture. Recent advances in pose estimation with deep learning allows researchers to train deep neural networks to accurately quantify a wide variety of animal behaviors. Here, we provide a new DeepLabCut-Live! package that achieves low-latency real-time pose estimation (within 15 ms, >100 FPS), with an additional forward-prediction module that achieves zero-latency feedback, and a dynamic-cropping mode that allows for higher inference speeds. We also provide three options for using this tool with ease: (1) a stand-alone GUI (called DLC-Live! GUI), and integration into (2) Bonsai, and (3) AutoPilot. Lastly, we benchmarked performance on a wide range of systems so that experimentalists can easily decide what hardware is required for their needs.
Adult zebrafish are robustly social animals whereas larva is not. We designed an assay to determine at what stage of development zebrafish begin to interact with and prefer other fish. One week old ...zebrafish do not show significant social preference whereas most 3 weeks old zebrafish strongly prefer to remain in a compartment where they can view conspecifics. However, for some individuals, the presence of conspecifics drives avoidance instead of attraction. Social preference is dependent on vision and requires viewing fish of a similar age/size. In addition, over the same 1-3 weeks period larval zebrafish increasingly tend to coordinate their movements, a simple form of social interaction. Finally, social preference and coupled interactions are differentially modified by an NMDAR antagonist and acute exposure to ethanol, both of which are known to alter social behavior in adult zebrafish.
Extracellular microelectrodes have been widely used to measure brain activity, yet there are still basic questions about the requirements for a good extracellular microelectrode. One common source of ...confusion is how much an electrode's impedance affects the amplitude of extracellular spikes and background noise. Here we quantify the effect of an electrode's impedance on data quality in extracellular recordings, which is crucial for both the detection of spikes and their assignment to the correct neurons. This study employs commercial polytrodes containing 32 electrodes (177 μm
) arranged in a dense array. This allowed us to directly compare, side-by-side, the same extracellular signals measured by modified low impedance (∼100 kΩ) microelectrodes with unmodified high impedance (∼1 MΩ) microelectrodes. We begin with an evaluation of existing protocols to lower the impedance of the electrodes. The poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT-PSS) electrodeposition protocol is a simple, stable, and reliable method for decreasing the impedance of a microelectrode up to 10-fold. We next record
using polytrodes that are modified in a 'chess board' pattern, such that the signal of one neuron is detected by multiple coated and non-coated electrodes. The performance of the coated and non-coated electrodes is then compared on measures of background noise and amplitude of the detected action potentials. If the proper recording system is used, then the impedance of a microelectrode within the range of standard polytrodes (∼0.1 to 2 MΩ) does not greatly affect data quality and spike sorting. This study should encourage neuroscientists to stop worrying about one more unknown.
Two salts of the dissymmetric TTF-derivative 4-cyanobenzene-ethylenedithio-tetrathiafulvalene (4-CNB-EDT-TTF) with bromide and tribromide anions and with different stoichiometries, namely, (1:1) ...(4-CNB-EDT-TTF)Br3 (1) and (4:1) (4-CNB-EDT-TTF)4Br (2), were obtained by electrocrystallization and diffusion methods, respectively. The crystal structures of these compounds, as determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, are based on head-to-tail donor dimers with ring over ring overlap and donor stack arrangement, interleaved by anions depending on the (1:1) or (4:1) salt, respectively. The 4:1 salt behaves as a Mott insulator. In both salts, the donors are connected to adjacent donors through C–N···H–C interactions, which can be described as an modified R2 4 (10)* synthon for 1 and a combination of R2 2(10) and R2 4(10) synthons for 2.
Real-time rendering of closed-loop visual environments is important for next-generation understanding of brain function and behaviour, but is often prohibitively difficult for non-experts to ...implement and is limited to few laboratories worldwide. We developed BonVision as an easy-to-use open-source software for the display of virtual or augmented reality, as well as standard visual stimuli. BonVision has been tested on humans and mice, and is capable of supporting new experimental designs in other animal models of vision. As the architecture is based on the open-source Bonsai graphical programming language, BonVision benefits from native integration with experimental hardware. BonVision therefore enables easy implementation of closed-loop experiments, including real-time interaction with deep neural networks, and communication with behavioural and physiological measurement and manipulation devices.
A robust role for motor cortex Lopes, Gonçalo; Nogueira, Joana; Dimitriadis, George ...
Frontiers in neuroscience,
02/2023, Letnik:
17
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The role of motor cortex in non-primate mammals remains unclear. More than a century of stimulation, anatomical and electrophysiological studies has implicated neural activity in this region with all ...kinds of movement. However, following the removal of motor cortex, rats retain most of their adaptive behaviors, including previously learned skilled movements. Here we revisit these two conflicting views of motor cortex and present a new behavior assay, challenging animals to respond to unexpected situations while navigating a dynamic obstacle course. Surprisingly, rats with motor cortical lesions show clear impairments facing an unexpected collapse of the obstacles, while showing no impairment with repeated trials in many motor and cognitive metrics of performance. We propose a new role for motor cortex: extending the robustness of sub-cortical movement systems, specifically to unexpected situations demanding rapid motor responses adapted to environmental context. The implications of this idea for current and future research are discussed.
The external envelope walls of a significant percentage of the residential building stock in Southern European countries is commonly constituted by infill masonry walls. However, thousands of square ...meters of this masonry wall typology presents severe issues of cracking and instability, related to the incorrect and deficient support conditions of the outer brick panel of the double-leaf wall solution. In this work, an experimental campaign divided in two phases has been performed to evaluate the effectiveness of two different remedial wall ties retrofitting techniques (Solution A and Solution B) used for double leaf horizontally hollowed clay brick masonry façades. The first phase of the experimental campaign was performed on 120 isolated specimens of horizontally hollowed clay bricks, resorting to post- and pre-NP EN 771-1 brick exemplars (that is, new and pre-existent aged bricks, respectively), as well as on 4 square wallettes, with a side length of 1.20 m, considered as representative of a real scale scenario, for evaluating the two remedial wall ties retrofitting techniques. The second phase of the experimental campaign was performed to fully characterize the different failure types as well as the slipping phenomena observed in the first phase of the experimental campaign, focusing solely on the retrofitting technique Solution B and comprises 24 tests performed on isolated specimens, resourcing to new and pre-existent aged bricks as well. The results obtained by the use of these techniques revealed an average anchorage strength value ranging from 0.25 to 2.5 kN for each tested tie-bar. Solution B reveals an increase of double of the anchorage strength value in comparison to Solution A. In this sense, the global results revealed a suitable applicability of both retrofit studied solutions.
The past reconstruction processes that took place after important earthquakes, and the development and progressive use of reinforced concrete (RC) since the beginning of the twentieth century, led to ...the creation of a mixed unreinforced masonry–reinforced concrete typology, hereinafter designated as URM–RC. The implementation of such practices, mainly in retrofitting interventions of existing unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings, has been spread all over the world, especially due to numerous vague recommendations given in certain building codes. However, over the years, these
derived
mixed URM–RC buildings revealed to be extremely vulnerable to seismic loads, and their inherent complex structural behaviour is still understudied. Only in recent years researchers have started to turn their attention to the seismic vulnerability of these structures, by studying and observing their particular damage patterns, mechanisms and interaction effects from coupling RC structural elements to URM loadbearing walls. Moreover, the beneficial nature of structural interventions with RC on URM buildings located in seismically prone regions is still a contentious issue for most of the research community. In this context, the present paper represents a stepping stone for the thorough understanding of the existing derived mixed URM–RC building typologies. A comprehensive cataloguing and categorization of the different intervention typologies is presented in order to support a more reliable assessment of their seismic vulnerability in future studies, as well as to design proper strengthening interventions so as to avoid future disasters. Furthermore, a comprehensive array of open issues is given in a section dedicated to the associated challenges.
New iron and cobalt bis(dithiolene) complexes M(3cbdt)2 (3cbdt = 3-cyanobenzene-1,2-dithiolate) were prepared as tetraphenylphosphonium (Ph4P+) salts for Fe in the monoanionic state and for Co in ...both the dianionic and monoanionic states: (Ph4P)2Fe(III)(3cbdt)22 (1); (Ph4P)2Co(III)(3cbdt)22 (2); (Ph4P)2Co(II)(3cbdt)2 (3). These compounds were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, cyclic voltammetry, EPR, and static magnetic susceptibility. Their properties are discussed in comparison with the corresponding complexes based on the isomer ligand 4-cyanobenzene-1,2-dithiolate (4cbdt) and 4,5-cyanobenzene-1,2-dithiolate (dcbdt), previously described by us. The Fe(III) and the Co(III) compounds (1 and 2) are isostructural, crystallizing in the triclinic P1¯ space group, with cis M(III)(3cbdt)2 complexes dimerized in a trans fashion, and the transition metal (M = Fe, Co) has a distorted 4+1 square pyramidal coordination geometry. The Co(II) compound (3) crystallizes in the triclinic P1¯ space group, with the unit cell containing one cis and three trans inequivalent Co(II)(3cbdt)2 complexes with the transition metal (Co) and having a square planar coordination geometry. The Fe(III) complex (1) is EPR-silent, and the static magnetic susceptibility shows a temperature dependence typical of dimers of antiferromagnetically coupled S = 3/2 spins with −J/kB = 233.6 K and g = 1.8. Static magnetic susceptibility measurements of compound (3) show that this Co(II) complex is paramagnetic, corresponding to an S = ½ state with g = 2, in agreement with EPR spectra showing in solid state a hyperfine structure typical of the I(59Co) = 7/2. Static susceptibility measurements of Co(III) complex (2) showed an increase in the paramagnetic susceptibility upon warming above 100 K, which is consistent with strong AFM coupling between dimerized S = 1 units with a constant −J/kB ~1286 K.
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