Med pc 5 software

The operant conditioning equipment used in this study has been described in detail previously²⁶ . Briefly, intravenous fentanyl self-administration data were collected using 32 modular mouse operant conditioning chambers enclosed in sound attenuating cubicles (Med Associates; St. Albans, Vermont). Two retractable response levers were mounted to the right and left sides of the front wall (henceforth active lever and inactive lever, respectively). A stimulus light was mounted directly above each of the two levers. A house light was centrally mounted on the front wall of each chamber. A 25-gauge single-channel plastic swivel was mounted to a counterbalanced lever-arm attached to the lid of the chamber. An infusion pump was mounted within the sound attenuating cubicle outside of the operant conditioning chamber. Tubing was used to connect a 20 mL syringe mounted on the infusion pump to the swivel. During fentanyl self-administration testing, tubing was used to connect the externalized catheter port on the midscapular region of the mouse to the plastic swivel. Operant conditioning chambers were controlled by two Med Associates control units using MED-PC V software.

Training and testing were conducted in 12 operant chambers (Med Associates, St. Albans, VT, USA) as described previously (Figure 1B; Ciampoli et al., 2017 (link); Huang et al., 2017 (link)). Briefly, two strings of LED lights were installed onto the ceiling of each of the sound-attenuating boxes and controlled by a timer to ensure 12 h light/dark. Each operant chamber contained a five nose-poke hole wall outfitted with an LED stimulus light for each hole. Additional LED pre-cue lights were installed above each of the five nose-poke holes. An infrared beam detected nose-poke. On the opposite wall of the five holes, there was a food magazine and a head entry detector for food reinforcement. A water dispenser on the latter wall allowed the mice to have full access to water throughout the test. A houselight was located above the food magazine. The operant chambers were connected to a smart control panel and interfaced to a Windows computer equipped with an MED-PC V software (Med Associates).

Experiments were conducted in a modular operant conditioning cage with a grid floor, pellet receptacle, and pellet dispenser (Behavioral Test Packages for Rat, Med Associates Inc., Fairfax, VT, USA) controlled by Med-PC^® V software (version 5.08, Med Associates Inc.). Additionally, there was a USV condenser microphone CM16/CMPA (UltraSoundGate, Avisoft Bioacoustics, Glienicke/Nordbahn, Germany) placed in the glass ceiling of the cage and an ultrasonic speaker (Vifa, Avisoft Bioacoustics) placed in the corner of the cage, next to the pellet receptacle, connected to an UltraSoundGate Player 116 (Avisoft Bioacoustics). Both USV-playback and recording were performed using Avisoft Recorder USGH software (version 1.0.0.1, Avisoft Bioacoustics). The locomotor activity was recorded with a FLIR^® camera (Teledyne FLIR LCC, Wilsonville, OR, USA) mounted behind or above the cage and controlled via Spinnaker^® SDK software (version 1.15.0.63, Teledyne FLIR LCC, Wilsonville, OR, USA); home-cage activity was recorded with a Basler camera (acA1300-60gc, Basler AG, Ahrensburg, Germany) controlled via EthoVision XT software (version 10, Noldus, Wageningen, Netherlands). Non-flavored sucrose pellets weighing 45 mg (TestDiet^®, St. Louis, MO, USA) were used as rewards in conditioning. The cage was cleaned and thoroughly wiped using 10% EtOH between animals.

Animals in the rehabilitation groups (VEH-RUN and LOS-RUN) were housed with unrestricted access to a running wheel (ENV-042; Med Associates Inc.; Fairfax, VT, USA) and were acclimated 7 days prior to VML injury. The running wheel access was restricted for 7 days post-VML injury followed by unrestricted access until the 56-day study endpoint. Total running distances were digitally recorded using Med PC-V software (Med Associates Inc.; Fairfax, VT, USA), and the average daily running distance per animal was calculated weekly after each data collection.