title: Single pellet grasping following cervical spinal cord injury in adult rat using an automated full-time training robot.
abstract: Task specific motor training is a common form of rehabilitation therapy in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). The single pellet grasping (SPG) task is a skilled forelimb motor task used to evaluate recovery of forelimb function in rodent models of SCI. The task requires animals to obtain food pellets located on a shelf beyond a slit at the front of an enclosure. Manually training and testing rats in the SPG task requires extensive time and often yields results with high outcome variability and small therapeutic windows (i.e., the difference between pre- and post-SCI success rates). Recent advances in automated SPG training using automated pellet presentation (APP) systems allow rats to train ad libitum 24h a day, 7 days a week. APP trained rats have improved success rates, require less researcher time, and have lower outcome variability compared to manually trained rats. However, it is unclear whether APP trained rats can perform the SPG task using the APP system after SCI. Here we show that rats with cervical SCI can successfully perform the SPG task using the APP system. We found that SCI rats with APP training performed significantly more attempts, had slightly lower and less variable final score success rates, and larger therapeutic windows than SCI rats with manual training. These results demonstrate that APP training has clear advantages over manual training for evaluating reaching performance of SCI rats and represents a new tool for investigating rehabilitative motor training following CNS injury.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada; Department of Physical therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada. Electronic address: fenrich@ualberta.ca.
authors.forename: Keith K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Fenrich
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada; Department of Physical therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada.
authors.forename: Zacincte
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: May
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada; Department of Physical therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada.
authors.forename: Abel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Torres-Espín
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada; Department of Physical therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Forero
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada; Department of Physical therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada; Department of Physical therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6E 2G4, Canada.
authors.forename: Karim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fouad
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D066193:Cervical Cord / Q000293:injuries / Q000503:physiopathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D005528:Foot / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005552:Forelimb / Q000503:physiopathology; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology; D012371:Robotics; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Automated animal training; Grasping; Motor behavior; Reaching; Rehabilitation; Single pellet grasping; Skilled motor task; Spinal cord injury