The authors of “An inexpensive, high-precision, modular spherical treadmill setup optimized for Drosophila experiments” make available here a full design package to replicate the treadmill of the publication.
Built to study the behavior of body- and head-fixed insects walking on an air-supported ball, the technology offered is a more compact, simpler setup than prior devices. It achieves unprecedented access to measuring fly behavior at low cost.
The Technology
LED-based systems offer a high level of control over the presentation of stimuli to model organisms. The authors of “A Modular Display System for Insect Behavioral Neuroscience” offer full documentation to recreate the described system and its derivatives at the repository presented here.
The Science
Head-fixed behavioral experiments in non-human primates, and more recently, rodents have been the gold standard in exploring the dynamics of the mammalian brain. The combination of precise stimulus control, monitoring of motor output, and neurophysiology over large numbers of trials is the foundation on which many conceptually rich and quantitative studies of the neural basis of sensation, cognition, and movement have been built. However, head-fixation and behavioral shaping requires the presence of an expert trainer. This process is time-consuming and difficult to document.
The Dual Lick Port Detector board provided here is used to detect a rodent drinking from one of the multiple outlets in a behavior experiment.
System Overview
Hardware Development
The four-way olfactometer is a structure for fly experimentation, wherein four sectors with different odors are created in a chamber, stimulating and allowing for observation of fly behavior.
Projectors are the most popular visual stimulation devices for visual neurophysiology experiments. Projectors can be designed with novel display solutions for rendering high temporal and spatial resolution images for vision research. Previously, researchers at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus developed a visual stimulator system consisting of three DepthQ WXGA-360 projectors. Although the system has been effective in several neurophysiology research laboratories, an improved system based on the CEL5500 light engine (from Digital Light Innovations) has been designed and fabricated.
Most small rodents, including mice, emit ultrasonic vocalizations that are integral to courtship. However, unlike other vocalizing animals, ultrasonic vocalizations of mice lack a visible movement; therefore, it is difficult to identify which mouse is vocalizing during social interaction. It is difficult to determine the level of vocal participation by males and females during courtship.
Many animals rely on acoustic signals to communicate both social and sexual information. The Drosophila melanogaster fly has served as a powerful model system for genetic studies of courtship songs. Previous research has characterized courtship songs, either through visual or audio recordings, of only a limited number of animals and has required manual annotation of the fly songs.
Lick sensors can be important tools in determining rodents' licking and drinking behavior during behavioral and neuroscience research. Commercially available lick sensors generally use electrical, optical, or force sensors in measuring licking and drinking behavior. However, a common problem with commercially available lick sensors is the production of significant electrical artifacts during the recording of neural signals.
