Ratphones: An Affordable Tool for Highly Controlled Sound Presentation in Freely Moving Rats

Abstract

Encoding and processing sensory information is key to understanding the environment and to guiding behavior accordingly. Characterizing the behavioral and neural correlates of these processes requires the experimenter to have a high degree of control over stimuli presentation. For auditory stimulation in animals with relatively large heads, this can be accomplished by using headphones. However, it has proven more challenging in smaller species, such as rats and mice, and has been only partially solved using closed-field speakers in anesthetized or head-restrained preparations. To overcome the limitations of such preparations and to deliver sound with high precision to freely moving animals, we have developed a set of miniature headphones for rats. The headphones consist of a small, skull-implantable base attached with magnets to a fully adjustable structure that holds the speakers and keeps them in the same position with respect to the ears.