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Citric Acid Water as an Alternative to Water Restriction for High-Yield Mouse Behavior

View ORCID ProfileAnne E Urai, View ORCID ProfileValeria Aguillon-Rodriguez, View ORCID ProfileInês C Laranjeira, View ORCID ProfileFanny Cazettes, The International Brain Laboratory, View ORCID ProfileZachary F Mainen, View ORCID ProfileAnne K Churchland
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.02.973016
Anne E Urai
1Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
2Department of Cognitive Psychology, University of Leiden, The Netherlands
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  • For correspondence: anne.urai@gmail.com
Valeria Aguillon-Rodriguez
1Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
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Inês C Laranjeira
3Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal
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Fanny Cazettes
3Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal
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Zachary F Mainen
3Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal
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Anne K Churchland
1Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
4David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA
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Abstract

Powerful neural measurement and perturbation tools have positioned mice as an ideal species for probing the neural circuit mechanisms of cognition. Crucial to this success is the ability to motivate animals to perform specific behaviors. One successful strategy is to restrict their water intake, rewarding them with water during a behavioral task. However, water restriction requires rigorous monitoring of animals’ health and hydration status and can be challenging for some mice.

We present an alternative that allows mice more control over their water intake: free home-cage access to water, made slightly sour by a small amount of citric acid (CA). In a previous study, rats with free access to CA water readily performed a behavioral task for water rewards, although completing fewer trials than under water restriction (Reinagel, 2018). We here extend this approach to mice and confirm its robustness across multiple laboratories.

Mice reduced their intake of CA water while maintaining healthy weights. Continuous home-cage access to CA water only subtly impacted their willingness to perform a decision-making task, in which they were rewarded with sweetened water. When free CA water was used instead of water restriction only on weekends, learning and decision-making behavior were unaffected. CA water is thus a promising alternative to water restriction, allowing animals more control over their water intake without interfering with behavioral performance.

Significance Statement High-throughput, reliable behavioral training is a key requirement for the use of mice in behavioral and systems neuroscience, but depends crucially on ability to motivate animals to perform specific behaviors. Here, we present an alternative method to commonly used methods of water restriction: free home-cage access to water, made slightly sour by a small amount of citric acid. This non-labor-intensive, low-error option benefits animal health without hindering behavioral training progress. Citric acid water can serve as a reliable and standardized strategy to achieve high quality task behavior, further facilitating the use of mice in high-throughput behavioral studies.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • https://github.com/int-brain-lab/citricAcid

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted November 03, 2020.
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Citric Acid Water as an Alternative to Water Restriction for High-Yield Mouse Behavior
Anne E Urai, Valeria Aguillon-Rodriguez, Inês C Laranjeira, Fanny Cazettes, The International Brain Laboratory, Zachary F Mainen, Anne K Churchland
bioRxiv 2020.03.02.973016; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.02.973016
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Citric Acid Water as an Alternative to Water Restriction for High-Yield Mouse Behavior
Anne E Urai, Valeria Aguillon-Rodriguez, Inês C Laranjeira, Fanny Cazettes, The International Brain Laboratory, Zachary F Mainen, Anne K Churchland
bioRxiv 2020.03.02.973016; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.02.973016

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