Here, we train mice on an associative learning task to test odor discrimination. This protocol also allows for studies on learning-induced structural changes in the brain.
Olfaction is the predominant sensory modality in mice and influences many important behaviors, including foraging, predator detection, mating, and parenting. Importantly, mice can be trained to associate novel odors with specific behavioral responses to provide insight into olfactory circuit function. This protocol details the procedure for training mice on a Go/No-Go operant learning task. In this approach, mice are trained on hundreds of automated trials daily for 2–4 weeks and can then be tested on novel Go/No-Go odor pairs to assess olfactory discrimination, or be used for studies on how odor learning alters the structure or function of the olfactory circuit. Additionally, the mouse olfactory bulb (OB) features ongoing integration of adult-born neurons. Interestingly, olfactory learning increases both the survival and synaptic connections of these adult-born neurons. Therefore, this protocol can be combined with other biochemical, electrophysiological, and imaging techniques to study learning and activity-dependent factors that mediate neuronal survival and plasticity.
The mouse OB, where odor information first enters the central nervous system (CNS), provides an excellent model to study experience-dependent structural changes. OB circuity continually integrates adult-born neurons in an activity-dependent manner. Adult-born neuron precursors divide off from progenitors that line the subventricular zone adjacent to the lateral ventricles1. Upon migrating into the OB, these neuronal precursors either survive, differentiate, and integrate as inhibitory granule cells, or undergo apoptosis2. Selection for cell fate is influenced by olfactory activity, including olfactory learning3,4,5,6. After integration, learning-induced synaptic changes occur in granule cells during a two-week critical period7,8. Thus, assays for olfactory learning are useful for examining how experience-dependent plasticity influences structural and functional reorganization of a mature brain circuit.
This protocol offers one approach to olfactory training by using an operant conditioning paradigm. In this task, water-deprived mice are trained to associate one odor (the "Go" odor) with a water reward and another odor (the "No-Go" odor) with a trial timeout punishment. Mice progress through a graded series of training phases over the course of 2-4 weeks. When training is complete, mice respond to the Go or No-Go odor with discrete, corresponding behaviors (seeking a water reward on Go trials and not seeking the water reward on No-Go trials) (Figure 1A). After training is complete, mice can be further challenged with chemically similar odor pairs to test discrimination or become transitioned to studies investigating how olfactory learning alters the structure or function of the OB. Although odor discrimination tasks have been previously described, most rely on subjective measurements such as number of sniffs between two odorants9,10. Furthermore, the need for human scoring of such tasks is also time-intensive. The Go/No-Go olfactory learning task described in this protocol offers an unbiased, direct measurement of odor discrimination and olfactory learning.
All mice were used under a protocol approved by the Baylor College of Medicine Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee in accordance with NIH standards. Mice used in this protocol were all adult mice (>6 weeks of age) on C57BL6/j background and included both male and female mice.After training/staging tasks, mice are returned to their home cage.
1. Construction and General Rules for Using Operant Learning Box (Figure 1B, C)
2. Mouse Preparation: 1–3 days
3. Instructions for All Stages
4. Training Stage 1: Associating Water Reward with a Center Nose Poke, 1–3 Days
5. Training Stage 2: Associating a Side Port Water Reward with Center Port Nose Poke, 1–5 Days
6. Training Stage 3: Associating a Water Reward with a Specific Odor and Within a Specific Time Window, 1–3 Days
7. Stage 4A: Associating No-Go (S-) Odor and Time-out Punishment, 1–2 Days
8. Stage 4B: Associating No-Go (S-) Odor and Time Out Punishment, 5–11 Days
9. Go/No-Go Assay Task: 1 Day, 20 Min per Mouse per Day
Once mice have learned the olfactory learning task, they can now associate novel odor pairs with reward and punishment. These trained mice normally begin with about 50% accuracy on the Go/No-Go task. The percentage correct can be plotted by trial block as a learning curve for novel odor pairs (Figure 3A). Within 10 block trials, which take most mice less than 30 min to perform, mice are able to correctly discriminate between odors with greater than 85% accuracy (red line). This shows that our protocol has successfully trained wildtype mice to associate one odor with a water reward and another with a timeout punishment. To assess the discrimination capabilities between two cohorts, these data can be further analyzed to compare the number of trials needed to reach 85% proficiency (Figure 3B) or by the average percent correct after reaching proficiency.
Once mice learn the task, odor pairs can be modified to increase or decrease the task difficulty. For example, decreasing the odor-pair concentration increases the task difficulty (Figure 3C). This analysis can reveal the threshold of detection for different mice cohorts. Furthermore, odor pairs can be changed to become more structurally similar (i.e., enantiomers or single carbon differences). Odor mixtures can also be used to increase task difficulty (i.e., 40/60 mixture vs. 30/70 mixture).
Mice are also able to remember previous learned odor pairs. After waiting 7 days since learning the task, a recall test show that wildtype mice can quickly remember previously learned odor associations (Figure 3D).
Figure 1: Go/No-Go training paradigm and equipment configuration. (A) Mice respond correctly by either obtaining water during Go Odor presentation or by refraining during No-Go Odor presentation. (B) The behavior box is configured such that only a single water port is accessible during stage 1 and all subsequent stages contain both a central odor delivery port and two water ports. Blue circle: water port. Green circle: odor port. (C) Odor delivery is gated by one odor valve for each odor. Positive pressure air intake leads to a distributor. Red arrows indicate positive air pressure line going into the prepared odor vial (red circle). Blue arrow indicates air/odor mixture leaving the odor vial and passing through an odor valve (light blue circle) and entering a white air integrating box. Orange arrow indicates positive pressure air going to a central regulator valve (orange circle) to the integrating box to allow for positive air pressure to push odor/air mixture from integrator box to the odor delivery port (bottom black arrow). Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 2: Training data. (A) Mice body weight percentage does not drop below 80% while on fluid restriction. Red line = 80% threshold. N = 8 mice. (B) Stage 1 training results show the number of center port pokes in 60 min to receive water reward. N = 8 mice. Error Bars are standard error of the mean. (C) Stage 2 training results show percentage of water rewards received within 5 s of center nose poke. Red line is 25% threshold. Mean percentage with gray highlighting as standard error of the mean. N = 8 Mice. (D) Stage 3 cumulative rewards show number of rewards received by 8 mice on day 1 and day 2 of training. Red line is 60 reward thresholds. Error bars are standard deviation. (E) Stage 4B accuracy results display percentage correct responses for stage 4B. Red line is 85% of threshold. Solid black line is mean and gray highlighting is standard error of the mean. N = 4 mice. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 3: Representative results for Go/No-Go task. (A) Go/No-Go task for 2 novel odorants (S+ = isoamyl acetate/S- = amyl acetate) after mice were trained on eugenol (S+) and eucalyptol (S-). N = 5 mice, with standard error of mean in gray. Green line is 50% accuracy, Red line is threshold 85% accuracy. (B) Example of Go/No-Go task for a mouse that would be a fast learner versus a slow learner mouse for hexanol (S+), and butyric acid (S-). (C) Go/No-Go task for varying partial pressures of hexanol (S+) and butyric acid (S-). (D) Ability of mice to recall the odor pair 7 days after training. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
The rodent olfactory system provides a unique model to study sensory dependent plasticity. Here we present an olfactory learning paradigm to train mice to associate odorant pairs with either a reward or punishment. Through this learning task, downstream circuit changes can be studied in subsequent experiments (electrophysiology, in vivo neuronal imaging, etc.). Upon completion, mice will learn to perform a simple odor cued task to associate a water reward with one odor, and a timeout punishment with another odor.
Since this is a behavioral assay, we recommend utilizing an equal distribution of age and sex among experimental and control animal groups. It is imperative that the conditions between mice are kept as constant as possible. For example, ensure that the mice handler and lighting conditions remain constant throughout the training. If many mice do not perform the task as expected, ensure the following conditions are met: (1) Keep the behavior setup as quiet as possible. (2) Water deprive the mice sufficiently. We find that even after an entire day of water deprivation, many mice will not sufficiently drink enough from the center port of the stage 1 box to reach completion criteria. (3) At the beginning of each new mouse, check the odor/water valves and tubes to ensure proper placement. (4) Odorants vary in their volatility and therefore some evaporate quicker than others. Replace more volatile odorants with higher vapor pressures daily instead of weekly, especially if lower concentrations are used.
This protocol can be modified according to the experimental purpose. If the learning time in stage 4B is important, then it may be advisable to remove any odors until this stage. This ensures that any olfactory learning begins at stage 4B. To accomplish this, we have performed this protocol by removing the odor from stage 3 and by skipping stage 4A entirely. Mice will have a more difficult time reaching completion criteria using this method, but this also gives valuable information for how quickly mice learn this task the first time.
One limitation of this protocol is that mice have to complete different stages until olfactory tests can be performed. Therefore, although not seen by our lab, a manipulation may impede cognition such that stage 4B is consistently not reached. We have tried to negate this problem by ensuring that each stage is sufficiently long enough to allow most mice to graduate to the next step of training. However, if a mouse does not reach completion criteria for a stage even after the full training period, we remove that mouse from the cohort. This allows us to continue the study without waiting on any individual mouse. Another limitation is that we have yet to extend this protocol to other animal models important for the field of olfaction. Rats, for example, have been instrumental in revealing neuronal function within the OB11,12. Due to their intelligence, rats also have faster learning times than mice13,14. Despite these limitations, we chose mice for this protocol because of their genetic tractability for performing cell type specific manipulations and recordings15.
Most existing protocols use differences in odor sniffs or time spent next to odors to approximate discrimination or learning4,6,9,10,16. This protocol can directly measure discrimination on a trial by trial basis. Furthermore, this can measure the exact number of trials each mouse needs to learn an association. This fully automated approach removes any human biases from the data analysis. Food deprived animals have also been successfully used for olfactory learning. Water deprived mice were chosen due to the increased number of trials a mouse can perform with water over food16.
As implantable activity monitors, such as Graded-Index (GRIN) lenses and multi-unit electrodes, continue to improve, we may soon be able to combine those technologies with this protocol17,18. By recording form relevant brain areas during olfactory learning, it is possible to probe how neuronal activities change during associative learning. This may help reveal fundamental neuroscience questions, such as how neurons encode information differently during learning.
The authors have nothing to disclose.
This protocol is adapted from previous work within our lab (Huang et al.8). All methods described here have been approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC) of Baylor College of Medicine. It is supported by the McNair Medical Institute, NINDS grant R01NS078294 to B.R.A., NIH IDDRC grant U54HD083092, NIDDK grant F30DK112571 to JMP, and NINDS grant F31NS092435 to CKM.
Glass vial | Qorpak | GLC-01016 | |
Silicon Tubing | Thermo Scientific | 86000030 | |
18 gauge needles | BD | 305196 | |
1-Butanol | Sigma Aldrich | 437603 | |
Propionic Acid | Sigma Aldrich | 402907 | |
Mouse Chamber | Med Associates | ENV-307W | |
Chamber Floor | Med Associates | ENV-307W-GFW | |
Water Port | Med Associates | ENV-313W | Need two |
Odor stimulus | Med Associates | ENV-275 | Contain 2 valves to gate odor delivery |
Odor Port | Med Associates | ENV-375W-NPP | |
USB Interface | Med Associates | DIG-703A-USB | |
Desktop Computer with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or 7 | |||
Flow meter | VWR | 97004-952 | |
Behavioral software | Med Associates | SOF-735 | This software, which runs each training stage, has now been replaced with Med-PC V |
Data Transfer software | Med Associates | SOF-731 | This software formats the data to Excel |
Training Software | Med Associates | DIG-703A-USB | This software is used to program each training stage |
Water Valve | Neptune Research | 225P012-11 | This valve is used to gate the water delivery. Need Two |
Odor Valve | Neptune Research | 360P012-42 | This valve is used to gate the odor delivery. Need Two |