Hardware

World Wide Series Seminar Cells and microorganisms are motile, yet the stationary nature of conventional microscopes impedes comprehensive, long-term behavioral and biomechanical analysis. The limitations are twofold: a narrow focus permits high-resolution imaging but sacrifices the broader context of organism behavior, while a wider focus compromises microscopic detail.

We present “Twinkle”: a microscope for Two-photon Imaging in Neuroscience, and Kit for Learning and Education. It is a fully open, high-performance and cost-effective research and teaching microscope without any custom parts beyond what can be fabricated in a university machine shop.

Zapit is a general purpose package for coordinating galvo-based optostimulation in head-fixed mice. It is a software and hardware solution with an emphasis on flexibility and ease of use. The software will run on a variety of hardware designs and experimental paradigms.

Bpod is an open-source platform for real-time behavioral measurement in multi-trial experiments. With control software in MATLAB and device firmware in Arduino, it is designed to be customized with the software talent in a typical academic Neuroscience lab.

This protocol collection explains how to build a low-cost, lightweight system to implant 1 Neuropixels 1.0 probe or 2 Neuropixels 2.0 probes into mice, record during freely moving behavior, then recover the probes for future use.

Video capture is increasingly necessary for neuroscience research where neural and behavioral data are synchronized to reveal correlative and causal relationships. This relies on a recording system that can capture quality videos without significant alterations to preexisting experimental conditions (e.

ArControl is a Arduino based digital signals control system. A special application for ArControl is to establish a animal behavioral platform (as Skinner box), which control devices to deliver stimulation, monitor behavioral response and record data.

Climbing fiber inputs to Purkinje cells provide instructive signals critical for cerebellum-dependent associative learning. Studying these signals in head-fixed mice facilitates the use of imaging, electrophysiological, and optogenetic methods. Here, a low cost behavioral platform (~$1000) was developed that allows tracking of associative learning in head-fixed mice that locomote freely on a running wheel.

MINI2P is an open-source miniature 2-photon microscope brain explorer for fast high-resolution calcium imaging in freely-moving mice. In brief Development of a miniature 2-photon miniscope for large-scale calcium imaging in freely moving mice allows stable simultaneous recording of more than a thousand cells across multiple planes of densely active cortical regions in a wide spectrum of behavioral tasks without impediment of the animal’s behavior.

This simple optogenetics stimulation driver is based on the Arduino Uno, and produces millisecond-accurate timing to control a single laser or LED. The dials allow easy control of pulse on-time and frequency, with a simple switch to turn the flashing on or off.