Abstract
Operant conditioning is a valuable method for studying cognitive functions, yet its adoption is limited by low throughput, labor intensity, and high costs. Here, we developed “Operant House,” a low-cost, programmable device featuring a touchscreen, retractable levers, and a water reward port, designed for flexible, automated operant conditioning tasks. To validate its utility, we implemented two protocols to assess working memory in mice: a delayed non-match-to-position test and a two-choice spatial discrimination test. Using these protocols, we examined a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease carrying familial Alzheimer’s disease-associated amyloid precursor protein mutations. Results revealed significant working memory deficits as early as 5 months of age. These findings highlight the Operant House as a cost-effective, high-throughput platform for evaluating higher cognitive functions in mice, offering an accessible tool for investigating models of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Full text
1,093 characters
· extracted from
oa-doi-fallback
· click to expand
Abstract
Operant conditioning is a valuable method for studying cognitive functions, yet its adoption is limited by low throughput, labor intensity, and high costs. Here, we developed “Operant House,” a low-cost, programmable device featuring a touchscreen, retractable levers, and a water reward port, designed for flexible, automated operant conditioning tasks. To validate its utility, we implemented two protocols to assess working memory in mice: a delayed non-match-to-position test and a two-choice spatial discrimination test. Using these protocols, we examined a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease carrying familial Alzheimer’s disease-associated amyloid precursor protein mutations. Results revealed significant working memory deficits as early as 5 months of age. These findings highlight the Operant House as a cost-effective, high-throughput platform for evaluating higher cognitive functions in mice, offering an accessible tool for investigating models of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below.
Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure
cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can
have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy
(via DOI)
is the canonical version.