Abstract

Open Science has changed research by making data accessible and shareable, contributing to replicability to accelerate and disseminate knowledge. However, for rodent cognitive studies the availability of tools to share and disseminate data is scarce. Automated touchscreen-based tests enable systematic cognitive assessment with easily standardized outputs that can facilitate data dissemination. Here we present an integration of touchscreen cognitive testing with an open-access database public repository (mousebytes.ca), as well as a Web platform for knowledge dissemination (https://touchscreencognition.org). We complement these resources with the largest dataset of age-dependent high-level cognitive assessment of mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, expanding knowledge of affected cognitive domains from male and female mice of three mouse strains. We envision that these new platforms will enhance sharing of protocols, data availability and transparency, allowing meta-analysis and reuse of mouse cognitive data to increase the replicability/reproducibility of datasets.

Data availability

Automated quality control (QC) algorithm and the codes are available for free download and modification in GitHub https://github.com/srmemar/Mousebytes-An-open-access-high-throughput-pipeline-and-database-for-rodent-touchscreen-based-dataThe touchscreen processed data were deposited into an open-access application (http://www.mousebytes.ca/).

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Flavio H Beraldo

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  2. Daniel Palmer

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  3. Sara Memar

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  4. David I Wasserman

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  5. Wai-Jane V Lee

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  6. Shuai Liang

    Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  7. Samantha D Creighton

    Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  8. Benjamin Kolisnyk

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  9. Matthew F Cowan

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  10. Justin Mels

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  11. Talal S Masood

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  12. Chris Fodor

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  13. Mohammed A Al-Onaizi

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  14. Robert Bartha

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  15. Tom Gee

    Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  16. Lisa M Saksida

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    Lisa M Saksida, consults for Campden Instruments, Ltd.
  17. Timothy J Bussey

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    Timothy J Bussey, consults for Campden Instruments, Ltd.
  18. Stephen S Strother

    Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  19. Vania F Prado

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  20. Boyer D Winters

    Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
    For correspondence
    bwinters@uoguelph.ca
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  21. Marco A M Prado

    Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
    For correspondence
    mprado@robarts.ca
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3028-5778

Funding

Weston Brain Institute

  • Robert Bartha
  • Stephen S Strother
  • Boyer D Winters
  • Marco A M Prado

Canada Open Neuroscience Platform

  • Sara Memar
  • Timothy J Bussey
  • Marco A M Prado

Mitacs

  • Daniel Palmer
  • Lisa M Saksida
  • Timothy J Bussey

CIFAR

  • Lisa M Saksida

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP136930)

  • Marco A M Prado

Alzheimer's Society

  • Vania F Prado
  • Marco A M Prado

Canada First Research Excellence Fund (BrainsCAN)

  • Robert Bartha
  • Lisa M Saksida
  • Timothy J Bussey
  • Vania F Prado
  • Marco A M Prado

Brain Canada

  • Vania F Prado
  • Marco A M Prado

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP126000)

  • Vania F Prado
  • Marco A M Prado

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP89919)

  • Vania F Prado
  • Marco A M Prado

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

  • Lisa M Saksida
  • Timothy J Bussey
  • Vania F Prado

Canada Research Chairs

  • Lisa M Saksida
  • Marco A M Prado

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Procedures were conducted in accordance with approved animal protocols at the University of Western Ontario (2016/104) and the University of Guelph (3481) following the Canadian Council of Animal Care and National Institutes of Health guidelines.

Copyright

© 2019, Beraldo et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 3,396
    views
  • 311
    downloads
  • 37
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Flavio H Beraldo
  2. Daniel Palmer
  3. Sara Memar
  4. David I Wasserman
  5. Wai-Jane V Lee
  6. Shuai Liang
  7. Samantha D Creighton
  8. Benjamin Kolisnyk
  9. Matthew F Cowan
  10. Justin Mels
  11. Talal S Masood
  12. Chris Fodor
  13. Mohammed A Al-Onaizi
  14. Robert Bartha
  15. Tom Gee
  16. Lisa M Saksida
  17. Timothy J Bussey
  18. Stephen S Strother
  19. Vania F Prado
  20. Boyer D Winters
  21. Marco A M Prado
(2019)
MouseBytes, an open-access high-throughput pipeline and database for rodent touchscreen-based cognitive assessment
eLife 8:e49630.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.49630

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.49630

Further reading

    1. Neuroscience
    Martina Held, Rituja S Bisen ... Jan M Ache
    Research Article

    Insulin plays a critical role in maintaining metabolic homeostasis. Since metabolic demands are highly dynamic, insulin release needs to be constantly adjusted. These adjustments are mediated by different pathways, most prominently the blood glucose level, but also by feedforward signals from motor circuits and different neuromodulatory systems. Here, we analyze how neuromodulatory inputs control the activity of the main source of insulin in Drosophila – a population of insulin-producing cells (IPCs) located in the brain. IPCs are functionally analogous to mammalian pancreatic beta cells, but their location makes them accessible for in vivo recordings in intact animals. We characterized functional inputs to IPCs using single-nucleus RNA sequencing analysis, anatomical receptor expression mapping, connectomics, and an optogenetics-based ‘intrinsic pharmacology’ approach. Our results show that the IPC population expresses a variety of receptors for neuromodulators and classical neurotransmitters. Interestingly, IPCs exhibit heterogeneous receptor profiles, suggesting that the IPC population can be modulated differentially. This is supported by electrophysiological recordings from IPCs, which we performed while activating different populations of modulatory neurons. Our analysis revealed that some modulatory inputs have heterogeneous effects on the IPC activity, such that they inhibit one subset of IPCs, while exciting another. Monitoring calcium activity across the IPC population uncovered that these heterogeneous responses occur simultaneously. Certain neuromodulatory populations shifted the IPC population activity towards an excited state, while others shifted it towards inhibition. Taken together, we provide a comprehensive, multi-level analysis of neuromodulation in the insulinergic system of Drosophila.

    1. Neuroscience
    Sergio Casas-Tinto, Nuria Garcia-Guillen, María Losada-Perez
    Short Report

    As the global population ages, the prevalence of neurodegenerative disorders is fast increasing. This neurodegeneration as well as other central nervous system (CNS) injuries cause permanent disabilities. Thus, generation of new neurons is the rosetta stone in contemporary neuroscience. Glial cells support CNS homeostasis through evolutionary conserved mechanisms. Upon damage, glial cells activate an immune and inflammatory response to clear the injury site from debris and proliferate to restore cell number. This glial regenerative response (GRR) is mediated by the neuropil-associated glia (NG) in Drosophila, equivalent to vertebrate astrocytes, oligodendrocytes (OL), and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs). Here, we examine the contribution of NG lineages and the GRR in response to injury. The results indicate that NG exchanges identities between ensheathing glia (EG) and astrocyte-like glia (ALG). Additionally, we found that NG cells undergo transdifferentiation to yield neurons. Moreover, this transdifferentiation increases in injury conditions. Thus, these data demonstrate that glial cells are able to generate new neurons through direct transdifferentiation. The present work makes a fundamental contribution to the CNS regeneration field and describes a new physiological mechanism to generate new neurons.