An open-source device for measuring food intake and operant behavior in rodent home-cages

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.66173
• Publication Date: 2021-03-29T12:00:28Z
• Authors: Bridget A Matikai...; Thomas Earnest; Mohamed Ali; Eric Casey; Justin G Wang; Amy K Sutton; Alex A Legaria; Kia M Barclay; Laura B Murdaugh; Makenzie R Norris; Yu-Hsuan Chang; Katrina P Nguyen; Eric Lin; Alex Reichenbach; Rachel E Clarke; Romana Stark; Sineadh M Conway; Filipe Carvalho; Ream Al-Hasani; Jordan G McCall; Meaghan C Creed; Victor Cazares; Matthew W Buczynski; Michael J Krashes; Zane B Andrews; Alexxai V Kravitz
• Keywords: Operant conditioning; Rodent model; Animal Behavior; Novel food

Feeding is critical for survival, and disruption in the mechanisms that govern food intake underlies disorders such as obesity anorexia nervosa. It important to understand both motivation reveal underlying feeding disorders. Operant behavioral testing can be used measure motivational component feeding, but most monitoring systems do not operant behavior. Here, we present a new solution rodent home-cages: Experimentation Device version 3 (FED3). FED3 measures behavior home-cages, enabling longitudinal studies of with minimal experimenter intervention. has programmable output synchronizing optogenetic stimulation or neural recordings. Finally, design files are open-source freely available, allowing researchers modify suit their needs.