Department of Physics and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Nat Methods. 2012 Jan 15;9(3):290-6. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.1853.
Small animals such as nematodes and insects analyze airborne chemical cues to infer the direction of favorable and noxious locations. In these animals, the study of navigational behavior evoked by airborne cues has been limited by the difficulty of precisely controlling stimuli. We present a system that can be used to deliver gaseous stimuli in defined spatial and temporal patterns to freely moving small animals. We used this apparatus, in combination with machine-vision algorithms, to assess and quantify navigational decision making of Drosophila melanogaster larvae in response to ethyl acetate (a volatile attractant) and carbon dioxide (a gaseous repellant).
小型动物，如线虫和昆虫，通过分析空气传播的化学线索来推断有利和有害位置的方向。在这些动物中，由于空气传播线索引发的导航行为的研究受到了精确控制刺激的难度的限制。我们提出了一种系统，可以用于以定义的空间和时间模式向自由移动的小动物输送气态刺激。我们使用该设备，结合机器视觉算法，评估和量化了黑腹果蝇幼虫对乙酸乙酯（一种挥发性引诱剂）和二氧化碳（一种气态排斥剂）的反应中的导航决策。
