Tongue Protrusions Modify the Syntax of Skilled Reaching for Food by the Mouse: Evidence for Flexibility in Action Selection and Shared Hand/Mouth Central Modulation of Action.

Tongue Protrusions Modify the Syntax of Skilled Reaching for Food by the Mouse: Evidence for Flexibility in Action Selection and Shared Hand/Mouth Central Modulation of Action. Behav Brain Res. 2017 Dec 08;: Authors: Whishaw IQ, Agha BM, Kuntz JR, Qandeel, Faraji J, Mohajerani MH Abstract Skilled reaching for food by the laboratory mouse has the appearance of an action pattern with a distinctive syntax in which ten submovements occur in an orderly sequence. A mouse locates the food by Sniffing, Lifts, Aims, Advances, and Shapes the hand to Pronate it over a food target that it Grasps, Retracts, and Withdraws to Release to its mouth for eating. The structure of the individual actions in the chain are useful for the study of the mouse motor system and contribute to the use of the mouse as a model of human neurological conditions. The present study describes tongue protrusions that modify the syntax of reaching by occurring at the point of the reaching action at which the hand is at the Aim position. Tongue protrusions were not related to reaching success and were not influenced by training. Tongue protrusions were more likely to occur in the presence of a food target than with reaches made when food was absent. There were vast individual differences; some mice always make tongue protrusions while other mice never make tongue protrusions. That the syntax of reaching can be altered by the insertion of a surrogate (co-occurring) movement ...
Source: Behavioural Brain Research - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Behav Brain Res Source Type: research