Behavioral Neuroscience

There is a long history of putting a tethered insect on a ball to measure its movements in response to controlled sensory stimuli. As mentioned in the publication, Karl Götz and Erich Buchner had fly-on-a-ball systems working almost four decades ago. Our system uses modern image processing technology to acquire, with high temporal resolution, velocity about all axes of rotation of the ball. The first system to use optical mouse sensors came from Berthold Hedwig's lab, which used them to monitor crickets walking on a ball.

About the Innovation

The Fly Bowl behavior quantification system

We have developed a high-throughput system for quantifying the locomotion and social behavior of flies with both breadth and depth. This system was developed as part of the Fly Olympiad project at Janelia. We screened the behavioral effects of TrpA neural activation at a rate of 75 GAL4 lines per week over a period of 1.5 years.

Recent advances in the use of awake, head-fixed preparation for small rodents (e.g., rats and mice) have led to an array of new interactive tools for studying brain and behavior. Here we present a method for creating large, lightweight spherical treadmills of arbitrary size. To accommodate different treadmill sizes, we provide a sparse, point-based floatation mechanism that is highly scalable. 

Recent studies have provided compelling demonstrations that both mice and rats can be trained to perform various behavioral tasks while head restrained. To be effective for research studies, a system of rodent head restraint is required for electrophysiology and imaging, both in vitro and in vivo. The system must include stability, rapid customization, and rapid conversion between preparations and low cost.

Observing neural activity during behavior has become an important tool in understanding neural function. Behavior reflects nervous system activity and is dependent on multiple factors, including external stimuli, experience, neuronal structure, and changes in the internal milieu of the animal. Alterations at the cellular or functional level can profoundly alter basal and evoked activity.

The olfactometer, or “electronic nose,” detects and measures odors in many research and commercial applications. This odor-delivery system consists of one cassette or multiple cassettes connected in parallel. Individual cassettes act as a discrete air dilution odor-delivery system and include two mass flow controllers (MFCs) and gas lines for air and the odorant being analyzed. Multiple vials and pairs of on-off valves are arranged in an optimal performance configuration to complete the system.