Automatic Reward Delivery

Gel Food and Liquid Delivery

We offer a user-configurable automatic reward delivery system (Item #90004) for customized behavioral apparatus. It features precise, moment-to-moment control and integrates reward deliveries seamlessly with the animal's behavioral responses, neuronal activities, and external sensor measurements. It accelerates experimental timelines significantly and enhances data reproducibility by minimizing human intervention.

Features

  • Automation – Utilize multiple motorized slides to automatically extend and retract levers, food dispenser, and liquid spout.
  • Operation Lick detection is performed by capacitive sensing. Food and water are dispensed using solenoid pinch valves. Fluid disbursement volume can be as small as 6ul to ensure animals consistently engaged in all the trials without reaching a state of satiety.
  • Control – The coordination of slide motor control, logging and management of lever press force sensing, lick detection, reward dispense volume is orchestrated by a customized field programmable gate array (FPGA) circuitry.
  • Data Logging and Integration - The time stamps of lever pressing, licking, and reward delivery can be synchronized and integrated with other behavioral responses, optical stimulation, and brain activity recordings.
  • Software - runs on a windows host PC to send commands to and collect data from the behavioral apparatus via a USB cable or WiFi.

Applications

Free-consumption choice task, two-alternative forced choice task and operant conditioning tests. Explore how the automatic reward delivery system is employed in the Talos behavioral apparatus, an integrated platform designed for automated training and analysis of animals' behavior in decision-making tasks.