Abet 2 touch software

The touchscreen-based apparatus consisted of an operant chamber housed within a sound and light attenuating box. Every trapezoidal-shaped chamber (respective dimensions: big basis = 25 cm; small basis = 6 cm; height = 18 cm) was individually equipped with a food magazine, a house light, a tone generator, a liquid reward dispenser, and a touch screen (Bussey Mouse Touchscreen Chamber, Campden Instruments, U.K.). The food magazine was placed at the small extremity of the trapezoidal chamber, and the touchscreen was located at the opposite end of the chamber. The touchscreen was permanently covered by a black Plexiglas mask with three square windows (side dimensions: length = 7 cm; height = 7 cm) separated by 0.4 cm and located at the height of 3.6 cm from the floor of the chamber. Through these windows, different visual stimuli could be shown on the screen (max. 1 stimulus per window). ABET II Touch software (Campden Instruments) controlled the system and collected data.

The touchscreen-based apparatus consisted in an operant chamber housed within a sound and light attenuating box. Every trapezoidal-shaped chamber (respective dimensions: big basis = 25 cm; small basis = 6 cm; height = 18 cm) was individually equipped with a house light and a tone generator, and had been especially designed to focus the attention of the animal towards the touchscreen placed at one end of the chamber (model #80614, Bussey Mouse Touchscreen Chamber, Campden Instruments, U.K.). The liquid reward dispenser delivering condensed milk into a magazine was located at the opposite end of the chamber. The touchscreen was permanently covered by a black Plexiglas 3-holes mask. Three square windows (side dimensions: length = 7 cm; height = 7 cm) were separated by 0.4 cm and located at a height of 3.6 cm from the floor of the chamber. Through these windows, different visual stimuli could be shown on the screen (max. 1 stimulus per window). Stimulus presentation and reward delivery timing were both controlled by a graphical task design software (ABET II Touch software, model #89505, Campden Instruments, U.K.) according to the automated detection of animal nose-pokes specifically oriented towards the screen and the magazine.

Training was carried out in standard Bussey-Saksida mouse touchscreen chambers (Campden Instruments Ltd., UK) (see [45 (link), 69 (link), 74 (link)]. The 2-hole mask (two 7 × 7.5 cm windows separated by a 0.5 cm bar) was placed in front of the screen to minimize unintentional screen touches. Stimulus presentation and task parameters were controlled by ABET II Touch software driven using the Whisker Server Controller (Campden Instruments Ltd., UK).

Testing was conducted in commercially available operant chambers (Bussey Mouse Touchscreen Chamber, Campden Instruments, UK) equipped with a touchscreen, house light, reward dispenser and magazine. Each operant chamber was contained within a sound-attenuating box, fitted with an overhead camera to monitor and record sessions. Infrared beams on the surface of the touchscreen and inside the magazine were used to determine responses. A black 2-window (7.0 × 7.5 cm) mask was placed in front of the touchscreen to promote responding to the correct locations. Mice were brought into the dimly lit (10% fluorescent lighting) testing room to habituate for a minimum of 30 min prior to each training session as testing was conducted with the house light off. Protocol operation, including stimulus presentation and reward delivery, and data analysis was conducted by ABET II Touch software (Campden Instruments, UK). The mask, touchscreen, grid floor and tray were cleaned with 70% ethanol between animals. At the end of the day, all reward lines were flushed with warm water then pumped dry to prevent blockages.

The Bussey-Saksida touchscreen chamber was from Campden Instruments Limited (Loughborough, UK), and described in detail by Tran et al. (2016 (link)). The screen was located in one end of the chamber and a reward tray in the other end. Rewards were 45 mg, dustless precision pellets with bacon flavor from Bio Serv (Flemington, NJ, USA). The screen was covered by a mask with three response windows. Stimulus delivery/detection and operant box inputs/outputs were controlled by ABET II Touch Software (Campden Instruments Ltd., Loughborough, UK).