Low-cost Open Hardware System for Behavioural Experiments Simultaneously with Electrophysiological Recordings

Overview

Journal HardwareX

Date 2022 May 2

PMID 35498270

Authors

Leandro A A Aguiar

Nivaldo A P de Vasconcelos

Gabriela Chiuffa Tunes

Antonio J Fontenele

Romildo de Albuquerque Nogueira

Marcelo Bussotti Reyes

Pedro V Carelli

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A major frontier in neuroscience is to find neural correlates of perception, learning, decision making, and a variety of other types of behavior. In the last decades, modern devices allow simultaneous recordings of different operant responses and the electrical activity of large neuronal populations. However, the commercially available instruments for studying operant conditioning are expensive, and the design of low-cost chambers has emerged as an appealing alternative to resource-limited laboratories engaged in animal behavior. In this article, we provide a full description of a platform that records the operant behavior and synchronizes it with the electrophysiological activity. The programming of this platform is open source, flexible, and adaptable to a wide range of operant conditioning tasks. We also show results of operant conditioning experiments with freely moving rats with simultaneous electrophysiological recordings.

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Low-cost open hardware system for behavioural experiments simultaneously with electrophysiological recordings.

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