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

• Published in: eLife Vol. 10
• Main Authors: Matikainen-Ankney, Bridget A, Earnest, Thomas, Ali, Mohamed, Casey, Eric, Wang, Justin G, Sutton, Amy K, Legaria, Alex A, Barclay, Kia M, Murdaugh, Laura B, Norris, Makenzie R, Chang, Yu-Hsuan, Nguyen, Katrina P, Lin, Eric, Reichenbach, Alex, Clarke, Rachel E, Stark, Romana, Conway, Sineadh M, Carvalho, Filipe, Al-Hasani, Ream, McCall, Jordan G, Creed, Meaghan C, Cazares, Victor, Buczynski, Matthew W, Krashes, Michael J, Andrews, Zane B, Kravitz, Alexxai V
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Science Publications, Ltd 29.03.2021; eLife Sciences Publications Ltd; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Analysis; Animal experimentation; Animal Husbandry; Animals; Anorexia; Anorexia nervosa; Automation; Batteries; Behavior; Camcorders; circadian; Circadian rhythm; Conditioning, Operant; Design; Eating; Eating disorders; Equipment Design - instrumentation; feeding; Feeding Behavior; Female; Food; Food intake; Housing, Animal; Male; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Mice; Motivation; Neuroscience; open-source; operant behavior; Operant conditioning; Public software; Rodentia - physiology; Rodents; self-stimulation; Software; Tools and Resources; Universal Serial Bus; mouse; circadian; neuroscience; operant behavior; self-stimulation; feeding; open-source
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/eLife.66173

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.