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Section: Neuroscience
Topic: Neuroscience

The Switchmaze: an open-design device for measuring motivation and drive switching in mice

Hartmann, Clara1 ; Mahajan, Ambika1 ; Borges, Vinicius1 ; Razenberg, Lotte1 ; Thönnes, Yves1 ; Karnani, Mahesh Miikael1, 2
1 Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2 Institute for Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Research, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, 1 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, UK

10.24072/pcjournal.416 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 4 (2024), article no. e48.

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Animals need to switch between motivated behaviours, like drinking, feeding or social interaction, to meet environmental availability, internal needs and more complex ethological needs such as hiding future actions from competitors. Inflexible, repetitive behaviours are a hallmark of many neuropsychiatric disorders. However, how the brain orchestrates switching between the neural mechanisms controlling motivated behaviours, or drives, is unknown. This is partly due to a lack of appropriate measurement systems. We designed an automated extended home-cage, the Switchmaze, using open-source hardware and software. In this study, we use it to establish a behavioural assay of motivational switching in mice. Individual animals access the Switchmaze from the home-cage and choose between entering one of two chambers containing different goal objects or returning to the home-cage. Motivational switching is measured as a ratio of switching between chambers and continuous exploitation of one chamber. Behavioural transition analysis is used to further dissect altered motivational switching. As proof-of-concept, we show environmental manipulation, and targeted brain manipulation experiments which altered motivational switching without effect on traditional behavioural parameters. Chemogenetic inhibition of the prefrontal-hypothalamic axis increased the rate of motivation switching, highlighting the involvement of this pathway in drive switching. This work demonstrates the utility of open-design in understanding animal behaviour and its neural correlates.

Published online:
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.416
Type: Research article
Keywords: innate behavior, mouse behavior, open-design, automated behavior, behavioral switching, motivation, feeding, drinking, prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus
Hartmann, Clara 1; Mahajan, Ambika 1; Borges, Vinicius 1; Razenberg, Lotte 1; Thönnes, Yves 1; Karnani, Mahesh Miikael 1, 2

1 Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2 Institute for Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Research, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, 1 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, UK
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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     journal = {Peer Community Journal},
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Hartmann, Clara; Mahajan, Ambika; Borges, Vinicius; Razenberg, Lotte; Thönnes, Yves; Karnani, Mahesh Miikael. The Switchmaze: an open-design device for measuring motivation and drive switching in mice. Peer Community Journal, Volume 4 (2024), article  no. e48. doi : 10.24072/pcjournal.416. https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.416/

PCI peer reviews and recommendation, and links to data, scripts, code and supplementary information: 10.24072/pci.neuro.100180

Conflict of interest of the recommender and peer reviewers:
The recommender in charge of the evaluation of the article and the reviewers declared that they have no conflict of interest (as defined in the code of conduct of PCI) with the authors or with the content of the article.

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