METHOD FOR FORMING BEHAVIORAL REACTIONS IN LABORATORY ANIMALS

Abstract

Background. The solution of a number of applied problems requires extrapolation of the medical and biological effects of exposure to extreme physical factors from animals on humans based on the results of experimental studies of the behavioral reactions of animals under the influence of such factors. The specificity of such studies is the need for preliminary formation of the necessary behavioral responses in a large group of laboratory animals, which requires significant time costs.
 Purpose. The purpose of the study was to reduce the time of formation of behavioral reactions in laboratory animals during experimental studies.
 Materials and methods. The experimental setup consists of five vertically located functionally independent identical three-beam (Y-shaped) radial labyrinths with an electric field, sensors for recording animal movements, generators of sound and light stimuli, and a control unit. The animal can move freely within all three rays. During the experiment, the time of the animal’s transition from the dangerous (starting) arm to the safe (target) arm and the number of erroneous actions performed in this case are automatically recorded. The number and duration of cycles and series of the experiment is set by software, which allows you to adjust the start time of the experiment autonomously, without the participation of the operator. To test the operability of the installation, a series of experiments was carried out to teach rats the reaction of active avoidance in the maze, white outbred mature male rats weighing 160-180 g in the amount of 50 individuals were used.
 Results. At the initial stage of training (during two weeks), the rats developed a current avoidance reflex. During the first week of training, the probability of achieving the goal increased from 0.64 to 0.85. In the second week of training, the probability of achieving the goal was 0.85-0.95. In the first week of training, the average time to reach the goal (time to go to the safe sleeve) decreased from 9 to 7 s. In the second week, the time to reach the goal decreased to 5-6 s. On the second week of training, some rats began to perform the task (to avoid the action of the current) before it was turned on, that is, in less than 5 s. The number of erroneous actions in the second week also decreased. For three weeks of continuous training, 30 animals with a stable behavioral skill (probability of correct action 0.45-0.50) were selected, with a time expenditure of 4 hours per day for autonomous (without the participation of the experimenter) training.
 Conclusion. The developed technology has demonstrated the possibility of effective training of a large group of animals in a relatively short period of time. A distinctive feature of the developed hardware and software complex is the possibility of implementing screening studies to study key indicators of operator functions with the possibility of autonomous operation of the experimental setup.