Hardware

World Wide Series Seminar FED3 is an open-source battery-powered device for home-cage training of mice in operant tasks. FED3 can be 3D printed and the control code is open-source and can be modified.

The advent of genetically encoded calcium indicators, along with surgical preparations such as thinned skulls or refractive index matched skulls, have enabled mesoscale cortical activity imaging in head-fixed mice. Such imaging studies have revealed complex patterns of coordinated activity across the cortex during spontaneous behaviors, goal-directed behavior, locomotion, motor learning,and perceptual decision making.

Two-photon (2P) microscopy is a cornerstone technique in neuroscience research. However, combining 2P imaging with spectrally arbitrary light stimulation can be challenging due to crosstalk between stimulation light and fluorescence detection.

Modern Biology methods require a large number of high quality experiments to be conducted, which requires a high degree of automation. Our solution is an open-source hardware that allows for automatic high-throughput generation of large amounts of cell biology data.

When performing canine operant conditioning studies, the delivery of the reward can be a limiting factor of the study. While there are a few commercially available options for automatically delivering rewards, they generally require manual input, such as using a remote control, in accordance with the experiment script.

Vision is one of the primary senses, and tracking eye gaze can offer insight into the cues that affect decision-making behavior. Thus, to study decision-making and other cognitive processes, it is fundamentally necessary to track eye position accurately.

The PocketPCR is a so called thermocycler used to activate biological reactions. To do so the device raises and lowers the temperature of the liquid in the small tubes. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used in molecular biology to make copies of a specific DNA segment.

Who says you can’t reinvent the wheel?! This running wheel for head-fixed mice allows 3D reconstruction of body kinematics using a single camera and DeepLabCut (or similar) software. A lightweight, transparent polycarbonate floor and a mirror mounted on the inside allow two views to be captured simultaneously.

SignalBuddy is an easy-to-make, easy-to-use signal generator for scientific applications. Making friends is hard, but making SignalBuddy is easy. All you need is an Arduino Uno! SignalBuddy replaces more complicated and (much) more expensive signal generators in laboratory settings where one millisecond resolution is sufficient.

Understanding how the brain controls behavior requires observing and manipulating neural activity in awake behaving animals. Neuronal firing is timed at millisecond precision. Therefore, to decipher temporal coding, it is necessary to monitor and control animal behavior at the same level of temporal accuracy.