Ratphones: An Affordable Tool for Highly Controlled Sound Presentation in Freely Moving Rats

Encoding and processing sensory information is key to understanding the environment and to guiding behavior accordingly. Characterizing the behavioral and neural correlates of these processes requires the experimenter to have a high degree of control over stimuli presentation. For auditory stimulati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published ineNeuro Vol. 10; no. 5; p. ENEURO.0028-23.2023
Main Authors Valente, Mafalda, Castiñeiras-de Saa, Juan R, Renart, Alfonso, Pardo-Vazquez, Jose L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Society for Neuroscience 01.05.2023
Subjects
Acoustic Stimulation - methods
Animals
Mice
Open Source Tools and Methods
Rats
Sound
Sound Localization - physiology
behaving animals
sound presentation
headphones
rodents
interaural level differences
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Encoding and processing sensory information is key to understanding the environment and to guiding behavior accordingly. Characterizing the behavioral and neural correlates of these processes requires the experimenter to have a high degree of control over stimuli presentation. For auditory stimulation in animals with relatively large heads, this can be accomplished by using headphones. However, it has proven more challenging in smaller species, such as rats and mice, and has been only partially solved using closed-field speakers in anesthetized or head-restrained preparations. To overcome the limitations of such preparations and to deliver sound with high precision to freely moving animals, we have developed a set of miniature headphones for rats. The headphones consist of a small, skull-implantable base attached with magnets to a fully adjustable structure that holds the speakers and keeps them in the same position with respect to the ears.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
Author contributions: A.R. and J.L.P.-V. designed research; M.V., J.R.C.-d.S., and J.L.P.-V. performed research; M.V., A.R., and J.L.P.-V. wrote the paper.
M.V. and J.R.C.-d.S. were supported by doctoral fellowships from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. A.R. was supported by the Champalimaud Foundation, Marie Curie Career Integration Grant PCIG11-GA-2012-322339, the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Young Investigator Award RGY0089, and EU FP7 Grant ICT-2011-9-600925 (NeuroSeeker). J.L.P.-V. was supported by HFSP postdoctoral scholarship LT000442/2012 and Ramón y Cajal Investigator Fellowship RYC2019-026380-I.
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
ISSN:2373-2822
2373-2822
DOI:10.1523/ENEURO.0028-23.2023