title: Trial-unique, delayed nonmatching-to-location (TUNL) touchscreen testing for mice: sensitivity to dorsal hippocampal dysfunction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The hippocampus is implicated in many of the cognitive impairments observed in conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and schizophrenia (SCZ). Often, mice are the species of choice for models of these diseases and the study of the relationship between brain and behaviour more generally. Thus, automated and efficient hippocampal-sensitive cognitive tests for the mouse are important for developing therapeutic targets for these diseases, and understanding brain-behaviour relationships. One promising option is to adapt the touchscreen-based trial-unique nonmatching-to-location (TUNL) task that has been shown to be sensitive to hippocampal dysfunction in the rat.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to adapt the TUNL task for use in mice and to test for hippocampus-dependency of the task.
  
  
  METHODS
  TUNL training protocols were altered such that C57BL/6 mice were able to acquire the task. Following acquisition, dysfunction of the dorsal hippocampus (dHp) was induced using a fibre-sparing excitotoxin, and the effects of manipulation of several task parameters were examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mice could acquire the TUNL task using training optimised for the mouse (experiments 1). TUNL was found to be sensitive to dHp dysfunction in the mouse (experiments 2, 3 and 4). In addition, we observed that performance of dHp dysfunction group was somewhat consistently lower when sample locations were presented in the centre of the screen.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study opens up the possibility of testing both mouse and rat models on this flexible and hippocampus-sensitive touchscreen task.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK. chk35@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Chi Hun
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.|Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Carola
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Romberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hvoslef-Eide
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.|Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Charlotte A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Oomen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.|Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, New York University Medical Centre, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Adam C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Mar
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Heath
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrée-Anne
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Berthiaume
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Bussey
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Saksida
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001331:Automation; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000187:drug effects*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D000077239:Meloxicam; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000494:pharmacology; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000494:pharmacology; D013843:Thiazines / Q000494:pharmacology; D013844:Thiazoles / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D009498:Neurotoxins; D013843:Thiazines; D013844:Thiazoles; D016202:N-Methylaspartate; D000077239:Meloxicam
keywords: Delayed nonmatching-to-location; Hippocampus; Mouse; Spatial pattern separation; Spatial working memory; Touchscreen operant chamber