The Floor Projection Maze: A novel rodent model system for studying how complex visual information guides behavior and cognition.

Floor Projection Maze: A Novel Rodent Model System for Studying Visual Cognition

Overview
The Floor Projection Maze stands as an innovative rodent research platform, specifically designed to advance our understanding of visual information processing, learning, memory, and attention. This device projects two-dimensional visual cues onto the maze floor from beneath, utilizing a semi-transparent surface illuminated by a digital projector. This particular setup is biologically optimal for rodents, naturally aligning with their downward gaze. The maze's adaptable structure facilitates the use of interchangeable testing environments, thereby accommodating a diverse range of behavioral study designs. Furthermore, its under-floor projection system integrates seamlessly with neural implants, enabling simultaneous recording of brain activity and behavior, and remains fully compatible with overhead video tracking. The system also supports automated behavioral reward delivery and offers customizable conditioning paradigms. Researchers have already successfully employed this maze to explore complex areas such as visual attention, decision-making, learning processes, spatial navigation, and visual discrimination.

Market Opportunity
As the costs and regulatory complexities associated with non-human primate research continue to rise, the demand for robust rodent models capable of studying visual cognition has become increasingly critical. The Floor Projection Maze offers a validated and highly adaptable method for exploring the neural underpinnings of visual processing in rodents, utilizing tasks that are directly comparable to those employed in primate vision studies. Unlike many traditional rodent tasks that often rely on olfactory and tactile cues, this maze uniquely isolates the visual modality. While rats may not possess the same visual acuity as primates, they do have a complete and functional visual system. Consequently, the Floor Projection Maze makes possible a diverse range of experiments dependent solely on visual information, thereby enabling stronger cross-species comparisons and effectively addressing a crucial gap in visually-guided cognitive research.

Invention, Meaningful and Advantages
The Floor Projection Maze presents several compelling advantages, firmly establishing it as an essential research tool. Its exceptional flexibility allows for the development of diverse tasks and the integration of multiple neural recording and manipulation techniques within a single laboratory space. Crucially, this system uniquely enables scientists to isolate the visual modality, thereby making rodents a more effective model for understanding primate visual information processing. The same apparatus can be readily adapted for use across various cognitive domains, including learning, memory, attention, and complex decision-making. Moreover, it is compatible with a wide array of recording and manipulation approaches, as well as interchangeable reward systems. The apparatus's capability for quick transformation also permits concurrent experiments, significantly maximizing overall laboratory efficiency.

Applications
The Floor Projection Maze has been successfully utilized in various research studies to investigate complex visual and cognitive functions in rodents:

• "Single neuron activity and theta modulation in postrhinal cortex during visual object discrimination" (Neuron, 2012): This study used the maze to train rats on a visual discrimination task, recording neural activity to understand how the postrhinal cortex encodes object-location conjunctions.
• "Objects and landmarks: hippocampal place cells respond differently to manipulations of visual cues depending on size, perspective, and experience" (Hippocampus, 2014): Researchers employed the maze to investigate how hippocampal place cells respond to different visual cues (objects versus landmarks) based on their size, the rat's perspective, and prior experience.
• "Functional Differentiation of Dorsal and Ventral Posterior Parietal Cortex of the Rat: Implications for Controlled and Stimulus-Driven Attention" (Cerebral Cortex, 2022): The maze was instrumental in a visuospatial attention task, allowing for the study of neuronal correlates in the posterior parietal cortex related to both controlled and stimulus-driven attention.