Figure 1

Prototypical syntactic grooming chain pattern.Choreograph shows mouse movements of the left/right paws over the face (time proceeds from left to right). Lines deviating above/below the horizontal axis show the trajectory height of left/right paws. Large black box denotes bout of body licking, and placement of asterisk in box shows which left/right side flank was chosen by the mouse to initiate body licking. Phase I: series of ellipse-shaped strokes tightly around the nose. Left and right paws often take alternating turns as the major/minor trajectory. Phase II: series of unilateral strokes, each made by one paw, that reach up the mystacial vibrissae to below the eye. Mice often make hybrid Phase I/II strokes, in that one paw makes a Phase II unilateral stroke while the remaining paw makes a smaller Phase I type ellipse. Phase III: series of bilateral strokes made by both paws simultaneously. Paws reach back and upwards, ascending usually high enough to pass over the ears, before descending together over the front of the face. Phase IV (strong or classic form): sustained bout of body licking, preceded by postural cephalocaudal transition to move mouth and tongue from facial and paw grooming to body grooming. Mouse-typical pattern modified from Berridge (1990). See Additional movie file 1 for examples of syntactic grooming chains by DAT-KD mutant mice.