One week prior to Pavlovian conditioning, mice were food restricted down to ~90% of free feeding body weight. A subset of the Pnoc-Cre fiber photometry mice (n = 10) and DAT-Cre fiber photometry mice (n = 7) were trained to associate illumination of a house light (CS) with access to a sipper with 10% sucrose solution (US) within a Med-Associates operant box (ENV-307A). The house light would illuminate 6 s prior to sipper presentation. The sipper remained accessible for 20 seconds before it retracted and the house light shut off. A randomized intertrial interval of between 30-90 seconds separated consecutive trials. Pavlovian conditioning sessions lasted for 30 minutes, over which an average of 19-20 rewards were presented. For reward omission sessions, the first 10 rewards were cued and subsequently delivered as normal and every following trial only involved house light illumination with no sipper presentation. Simultaneous fiber photometry recordings were made during Pavlovian conditioning sessions as indicated in Results section. NOPR antagonist, J-113397 (3 mg/kg, i.p.) or SCH-221510 (10mg/kg, i.p.) were administered 15 minutes prior to Pavlovian conditioning.
Operant box
Manufactured by Med Associates
Sourced in United States
The Operant box is a laboratory equipment designed for behavioral research. It is used to study and record the behavior of animals, such as rats or pigeons, in a controlled environment. The box is equipped with various components, including a response lever or button, a food or water dispenser, and devices for delivering stimuli or recording the animal's responses. The core function of the Operant box is to allow researchers to observe and analyze the relationship between an animal's behavior and the consequences of that behavior, such as the delivery of a reward or the application of a stimulus.
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Lab products found in correlation
8 protocols using operant box
1
Pavlovian Conditioning in Mice
2
Operant Helping Behavior in Rats
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Social contact-independent helping behavior was evaluated using a custom (Med Associates; Fairfax, VT, USA) operant box with three chambers, as described previously24 (link). Briefly, Targets were placed in 100 mm of water in the ‘wet’ compartment, while Observers were placed on a dry platform with access to a chain that, when pulled, opened an automated door and released the Target into a dry compartment separate from the Observer, preventing any opportunity for social interaction after the chain pull. Latency to chain pull was taken as an index of helping behavior. Trials (2 per day) were conducted daily spaced 1.5 h apart from one another during the rats’ dark cycle and lasted a total of 300 s (5 min) regardless of the chain pull latency to reduce the likelihood that removal from the apparatus was a motivating factor for the behavior. If the Observer did not pull the chain within the allotted time, the experimenter ended the trial and released the Target followed by the Observer.
3
Junk-Food Consumption in Rats
4
Optogenetic Stimulation of Reward Pathway
5
Operant Fear Conditioning in Rats
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An operant box (Med Associates Inc., St. Albans, VT, USA) enclosed in a dimly lit, sound-attenuating chamber with a metal-bar floor was used for fear conditioning experiments. Rats were trained in a standard fear conditioning task. On day 1, all animals were habituated to the room and then the operant box where fear conditioning was to take place. On days 2 and 3, fear learning commenced. Each trial consisted of two 10 s presentations of a tone followed immediately by a 1-s, 0.75 mA footshock (inter-trial interval 64 s). There were three trials per session, one session per day. Behavior was recorded with a video camera and analyzed offline. For analysis, the instantaneous state of the rat was scored at 2, 10, 18, 26, 34, 42, 50, and 58 s after the second tone; 1 for moving and 0 for freezing (immobility with the exception of breathing). Freezing or moving scores were also collected during a 3-min pre-tone baseline in the operant chamber where the testing took place prior to administration of any tone or footshock.
6
Operant Sucrose Reward Training in Mice
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Mice were food restricted to 85% of their ad libitum weight and monitored for maintenance of this weight throughout operant training. Operant sessions lasted 60 min, or until mice received the maximum number of rewards available (50 rewards). Mice were initially trained to acquire sucrose rewards from the reward port of an operant box (Med Associates) in the absence of any contingency. Mice then advanced to a fixed-ratio (FR) schedule of training during which they had to nosepoke once for one sucrose pellet (FR-1). After earning at least 30 rewards for two consecutive days (criterion for advancement), mice were advanced to FR-3 training, in which they had to nosepoke three times for one sucrose pellet. After reaching criterion for advancement, mice were advanced to FR-5 training.
7
Social Contact-Dependent Release Behavior
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Evaluation of social contact-dependent release behavior was performed in males and females (n = 4 pairs/sex) using a custom-made operant box (34.2 × 33.9 × 30.5 cm) by Med Associates (Fairfax, VT, United States; see Cox and Reichel, 2020 (link) for schematic). Targets were placed in 100 mm of water in the wet compartment of the apparatus, while the Observer was placed on a dry platform with access to a chain that, when pulled, opened an automatic guillotine door. Door opening allowed Targets to be released into the same dry compartment as the Observer (Cox and Reichel, 2020 (link)).
8
Operant Conditioning in Food-Restricted Rodents
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Male and female CEP0-P10 and PEEP0-P10 experimental subjects (P55-P80) from cohorts #1 and #2 were food restricted to 85–95% of their baseline body weight 3–5 days before the beginning of operant training and throughout the entire behavioral protocol. Subjects were handled for 3–5 min for 3–5 days before the start of the experiments. On day 0 (shaping), subjects were placed in the operant box (MedAssociates), and reward delivery (20% sucrose solution) occurred at random intervals every 60 s on average.
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