To further understand mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disease(s) and their impact on physiological systems, improved pre-clinical models and innovative methodology are needed to assess the internal physiological state of the animal in real-time. To address this challenge we developed a customizable software-based program for Ponemah™ that takes into account the animals diurnal and resting cardiovascular state in a home-cage environment. Using an integrated Pavlovian fear conditioning and cardiovascular telemetry approach in mice, we demonstrate for the first time a novel software add-on application that can remotely trigger a conditioned stimulus (CS) (i.e., audible tone) based on the animals instantaneous cardiovascular state while in its home-cage environment. This new software tool extends the ability to quantify integrated physiological correlates of learned threat and defensive behavior and may aid in further understanding mechanisms related to enhanced cardiovascular and autonomic arousal in anxiety-based disorders.

为了进一步了解神经精神疾病的机制及其对生理系统的影响，需要改进的临床前模型和创新的方法来实时评估动物的内部生理状态。为了应对这一挑战，我们为Ponemah™开发了可定制的基于软件的程序，该程序考虑了家庭笼养环境中动物的昼夜和心血管状态。在小鼠中使用集成的Pavlovian恐惧调节和心血管遥测方法，我们首次展示了一种新颖的软件附加应用程序，该程序可以基于动物的瞬时心血管状态远程触发条件刺激（CS）（即听觉音调），而在其家中的环境中。