Licking microstructure behavior classifies a spectrum of emotional states in mice.

IF 3.5 4区 医学 Q2 NEUROSCIENCES
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience Pub Date : 2025-08-13 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.3389/fnsys.2025.1623084
Randa Salalha, Micky Holzman, Federica Cruciani, Gil Ben David, Yam Amir, Firas Mawase, Kobi Rosenblum
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Measuring precise emotional tagging for taste information, with or without the use of words, is challenging. While affective taste valence and salience are core components of emotional experiences, traditional behavioral assays for taste preference, which often rely on cumulative consumption, lack the resolution to distinguish between different affective states, such as innate versus learned aversion, which are known to be mediated by distinct neural circuits. To overcome this limitation, we developed an open-source system for high-resolution microstructural analysis of licking behavior in freely moving mice. Our approach integrates traditional lick burst analysis with a proprietary software pipeline that utilizes interlick interval (ILI) distributions and principal component analysis (PCA) to create a multidimensional behavioral profile of the animal. Using this system, we characterized the licking patterns associated with innate appetitive, aversive, and neutral tastants. While conventional burst analysis failed to differentiate between two palatable stimuli (water and saccharin), our multidimensional approach revealed distinct and quantifiable behavioral signatures for each. Critically, this approach successfully dissociates innate and learned aversive taste valences, a distinction that cannot be achieved using standard metrics. By providing the designs for our custom-built setup and analysis software under an open-source license, this study offers a comprehensive and accessible methodology for examining hedonic responses in future studies. This powerful toolkit enhances our understanding of sensory valence processing and provides a robust platform for future investigations of the neurobiology of ingestive behavior.

舔舐的微观结构行为对老鼠的一系列情绪状态进行了分类。
测量味觉信息的精确情感标记,无论是否使用单词,都是具有挑战性的。虽然情感口味价和显著性是情感体验的核心组成部分,但传统的味觉偏好行为分析往往依赖于累积消费,缺乏区分不同情感状态的解决方案,例如先天厌恶和习得厌恶,这是由不同的神经回路介导的。为了克服这一限制,我们开发了一个开源系统,用于自由移动小鼠舔舐行为的高分辨率显微结构分析。我们的方法将传统的舔击爆发分析与专有的软件管道相结合,利用舔击间隔(ILI)分布和主成分分析(PCA)来创建动物的多维行为剖面。利用这个系统,我们描述了与先天食欲、厌恶和中性味觉相关的舔舐模式。虽然传统的突发分析无法区分两种可口的刺激(水和糖精),但我们的多维方法揭示了每种刺激的独特和可量化的行为特征。关键是,这种方法成功地分离了先天和习得的厌恶味道价,这是使用标准指标无法实现的区分。通过在开源许可下提供我们定制的设置和分析软件的设计,本研究为在未来的研究中检查享乐反应提供了一个全面和可访问的方法。这个强大的工具包增强了我们对感觉价加工的理解,并为未来研究摄食行为的神经生物学提供了一个强大的平台。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience Neuroscience-Developmental Neuroscience
CiteScore
6.00
自引率
3.30%
发文量
144
审稿时长
14 weeks
期刊介绍: Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience publishes rigorously peer-reviewed research that advances our understanding of whole systems of the brain, including those involved in sensation, movement, learning and memory, attention, reward, decision-making, reasoning, executive functions, and emotions.
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