A low-cost open-source 5-choice operant box system optimized for electrophysiology and optophysiology in mice

Abstract

Operant boxes enable the application of complex behavioural paradigms to support circuit neuroscience and drug discovery research. However, commercial operant box systems are expensive and often not optimised for combining behaviour with neurophysiology. Here we introduce a fully open-source Python-based operant-box system in a 5-choice design (pyOS-5) that enables assessment of multiple cognitive and affective functions. It is optimized for fast turn-over between animals, and for testing of tethered mice for simultaneous physiological recordings or optogenetic manipulation. For reward delivery, we developed peristaltic and syringe pumps based on a stepper motor and 3D-printed parts. Tasks are specified using a Python-based syntax implemented on custom-designed printed circuit boards that are commercially available at low cost. We developed an open-source graphical user interface (GUI) and task definition scripts to conduct assays assessing operant learning, attention, impulsivity, working memory, or cognitive flexibility, alleviating the need for programming skills of the end user. All behavioural events are recorded with millisecond resolution, and TTL-outputs and -inputs allow straightforward integration with physiological recordings and closed-loop manipulations. This combination of features realizes a cost-effective, nose-poke-based operant box system that allows reliable circuit-neuroscience experiments investigating correlates of cognition and emotion in large cohorts of subjects.

Distinct contributions of GluA1-containing AMPA receptors of different hippocampal subfields to salience processing, memory and impulse control

“…Psychological functions that are necessary for efficient, adaptive goal-directed behaviour include impulse control, sustained attention, and cognitive flexibility. These functions have mainly been associated with prefrontal circuits [ 62 – 64 ], although some evidence for mildly reduced sustained attention and impulse control (as assessed by the 5-CSRTT) resulting from hippocampal manipulations does exist [ 25 , 44 , 65 – 67 ]. Our finding that Gria1 ΔGrik4 mice showed a selective and profound reduction of response time variability and of active erroneous responses that would result from decreased attention or increased impulsivity in the 5-CSRTT pinpoints the CA3 subfield, its excitatory cells and GluA1-AMPARs within these cells as key regulators of sustained attention and impulse control.…”

“…The T-maze rewarded alternation and the operant delayed-match-to-place (DMTP) 5-choice (5-CSWM) tests of spatial working memory (SWM), the Y-maze test of spatial novelty preference (SNP), the novel object-recognition test (NOR), the elevated plus-maze (EPM) test of unconditioned anxiety, novelty-induced locomotion, nest-building, the 5-choice serial reaction-time task (5-CSRTT) and related operant rule-shift assays were each conducted as previously described [ 39 , 42 , 43 ] (also detailed in Supplementary Methods). Operant tasks were all conducted in custom-designed 5-choice operant boxes [ 44 , 45 ].…”

Chronic N-acetylcysteine treatment improves anhedonia and cognition in a mouse model of the schizophrenia prodrome

“…Mice were trained and tested in custom-made 5-choice operant boxes described previously ( Kapanaiah et al, 2021 ) in 45 min long sessions conducted once per day. Mice were food-restricted again, as for the prior SWM-testing, accustomed to the strawberry milk reward (Müllermilch, DE) in their home-cage and the operant box, and then trained to obtain a 40 μl milk reward for poking into any of the 5 holes of the 5-choice wall of the box, which were all illuminated until poking.…”

GoFish: A low-cost, open-source platform for closed-loop behavioural experiments on fish

“…To address this, we developed GoFish , a user-friendly platform for dynamic, fully-automated behavioural experiments on fish or other aquatic organisms. Our platform is inspired by present day behavioural, cognitive and neuroscience experiments that rely on open-source, community based, DIY-type solutions for running and developing new experimental paradigms, as well as for processing and analysing the resulting data streams (Akam et al, 2022; Aoki et al, 2015; Bishop et al, 2022; Buscher et al, 2020; Devarakonda et al, 2016; Geissmann et al, 2017; Guilbeault et al, 2021; Gurley, 2019; Kane et al, 2020; Kapanaiah et al, 2021; Lopes et al, 2021; Mathis et al, 2018; Oh et al, 2017; O’Leary et al, 2018; Pineño, 2014; Siegle et al, 2017; Swanson et al, 2021; Walter & Couzin, 2021).…”

“…To address this, we developed GoFish, a user-friendly platform for dynamic, fully-automated behavioural experiments on fish or other aquatic organisms. Our platform is inspired by present day behavioural, cognitive and neuroscience experiments that rely on open-source, community based, DIY-type solutions for running and developing new experimental paradigms, as well as for processing and analysing the resulting data streams (Akam et al, 2022;Aoki et al, 2015;Bishop et al, 2022;Buscher et al, 2020;Devarakonda et al, 2016;Geissmann et al, 2017;Guilbeault et al, 2021;Gurley, 2019;Kane et al, 2020;Kapanaiah et al, 2021;Mathis et al, 2018;Oh et al, 2017;O'Leary et al, 2018;Pineño, 2014;Siegle et al, 2017;Swanson et al, 2021;Walter & Couzin, 2021). Briefly, our system allows for the display of stimuli on a computer screen placed outside but adjacent to a tank, the detection of the subject's location in real-time through an overhanging camera, the programming of contingencies between fish movements and the delivery of food rewards, and the automatic recording of data in analysable format.…”