An open source device for operant licking in rats

Undergraduate Program, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Bioinformatics, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Undergraduate Program, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States
Department of Pharmacology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, United States
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.2435v1
Subject Areas
Animal Behavior, Bioengineering, Neuroscience
Keywords
operant behavior, behavior testing device, open source, single board computer, licking response, environment variables
Copyright
© 2016 Longley et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Longley M, Willis EL, Tay CX, Chen H. 2016. An open source device for operant licking in rats. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2435v1

Abstract

Increasingly complex data sets are needed to fully understand the complexity in behavior. Credit card sized single-board computers with multi-core CPUs are an attractive platform for designing devices capable of collecting multi-dimensional behavioral data. To demonstrate this idea, we created an easy to-use device for operant licking experiments and another device that records environmental variables. These systems collect data obtained from multiple input devices (e.g., radio frequency identification tag readers, touch and motion sensors, environmental sensors) and activate output devices (e.g., LED lights, syringe pumps) as needed. Data gathered from these devices can be automatically transferred to a remote server via a wireless network. We tested the operant device by training rats to obtain either sucrose or water under the control of a fixed ratio, a variable ratio, or a progressive ratio reinforcement schedule. The lick data demonstrated that the device has sufficient precision and time resolution to record the fast licking behavior of rats. Data from the environment monitoring device also showed reliable measurements. By providing the code and 3D design under an open source license, we believe these examples will stimulate innovation in behavioral studies. http://github.com/chen42/openbehavior.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

Raw data files and R scripts

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.2435v1/supp-1