Research Projects

Laboratory experiences (50 points): All students are required to have hands-on experiences working in a laboratory setting, assisting in training animals, gathering data, etc. There are two options by which you can earn the 50 points.

a. Assist in conducting Decision Making Experiments . The main focus of research projects being conducted in the Behavioral Neuroscience program is the analysis of decision making. Two projects will be designed that will investigate facets of how decisions are made. Your research serves as pilot experiments for projects that may be presented at professional conferences. You should plan on committing 20 hours during the term to these projects.

b. Your own rat shaping project. Many students enjoy working with their very own rat, teaching the animal to do things such as run an obstacle course, play basketball or soccer, etc. You are welcome to pair up with another student in the class and work on a project together. I’ll assist you in designing your project and provide advice about training procedures.

General Responsibilities:

Each student is assigned a rat. 25 of the 50 points for your projects is for maintaining the health of your animal and caring for it until your projects are completed. Your responsibilities will extend to the mid-semester break (October 20) after which your animal will be returned to the general colony for use in other projects unless you elect to keep your rat as a pet. You will need to provide your own caging, food, etc., if you take the animal home. Rats can’t be kept in your dormitory. Your responsibilities are as follows:

a. Clearly labeling your rat’s cage – the rat’s name is not sufficient- your name must be clearly indicated.

b. Obtaining your rat’s baseline body weight.

c. Handling the animal until it is calm when picked up and placed in an apparatus.

d. Reducing your rat’s weight to .85 of its baseline weight.

e. Making sure that prior to working with your rat in an apparatus, its weight does not fall below .85 of baseline.

d. Providing daily food rations to your rat. You also need to keep their water bottles filled, keeping the bottles and stoppers clean. Rats should be fed such that they have been food-deprived for 23 hours before you work with them. It is also essential, that your rat’s weight rises throughout the term. The animals are young and will not stay healthy at .85 of baseline. After your rats are well trained, they should be given a day off from time to time with “free food”. This will help them get their weights up.

f. Your rat’s weight must be posted on the weight chart in the class work directory. Students will be selected as project supervisors. One of their responsibilities will be to monitor the weight chart and to notify me if a rat’s weight is not being posted or the animal’s weight has dropped too low.

g. You need to clean-up after yourselves. Clean up all surfaces after working with your animals.

h. The Decision Making experiments involve the sharing of laboratory equipment and carefully following instructions. The following through on your responsibilities – working with the rat’s on the planned schedule, completing your data collection responsibilities and regular posting of acquired data counts for the remaining 25 points that you will be receiving for the project.

i. Independent Project designs must be approved by the instructor. Project goals must be clearly defined and the sub-goals needed to reach the goals clearly delineated. If you choose to work on an independent project you will need to supply the equipment and devices you will need. Generally, you can use large cardboard boxes for your training arenas. When your project is completed arrange to have your animal’s behavior evaluated.

Decision Making Experiments

The Decision Making projects you are working on are related to the Analysis of Choice material covered in the course and also to our coverage of working memory and long-term memory. These projects serve not only to provide experience with the basics of experimentation using animals, but also serve as projects that investigate research paradigms that can be used in our laboratory for thesis projects and presentations at professional conferences. By studying the behaviors selected, inferences can be made about the neural systems that underlie choice behavior. Theoretically, the work challenges some of the basis assumptions of how rats perform spatial tasks.

There are two experiments you can participate in- The Interaction of Working Memory and Incentive on Choice and The Maintenance of Choice Predisposition Over a 24 hour Interval.

Both of these projects will require daily activities working with your rats. You can take “days off” at points in the project that will not disrupt your rats’ performance. You are not required to work with your animals on week-ends. However, you are responsible for providing an adequate food ration over the week-end. Generally, your daily activities with the rats should take about 30 minutes.

Details of the projects will be provided next week. Students will be appointed supervisors. They will be able to provide specific instruction on what you will need to do.

Independent Projects

As an independent project you can elect to teach your rat a variety of behaviors, e.g, walk a tight rope, play basketball, run an obstacle course etc. You will be able to do this using the shaping technique of successive approximation. By carefully following the principles discussed in class and in the Baldwin and Baldwin text. You will be given guidance and trouble-shooting assistance on an individual basis.

The following web-sites may prove useful-

http://www.equilog.com.au/sheree%20project.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clicker_training

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_training

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaping_%28psychology%29