An open-source device for measuring food intake and operant behavior in rodent home-cages.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33779547.
- Also identified by DOI 10.7554/eLife.66173 and PMC identifier 8075584.
- Licence recorded as CC0.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Feeding is critical for survival, and disruption in the mechanisms that govern food intake underlies disorders such as obesity and anorexia nervosa. It is important to understand both food intake and food motivation to reveal mechanisms underlying feeding disorders. Operant behavioral testing can be used to measure the motivational component to feeding, but most food intake monitoring systems do not measure operant behavior. Here, we present a new solution for monitoring both food intake and motivation in rodent home-cages: the Feeding Experimentation Device version 3 (FED3). FED3 measures food intake and operant behavior in rodent home-cages, enabling longitudinal studies of feeding behavior with minimal experimenter intervention. It has a programmable output for synchronizing behavior with optogenetic stimulation or neural recordings. Finally, FED3 design files are open-source and freely available, allowing researchers to modify FED3 to suit their needs.
Medical subject headings
- Animal Husbandry
- Conditioning, Operant
- Equipment Design
- Feeding Behavior
- Housing, Animal
- Rodentia