Lopes Gonçalo, Monteiro Patricia
NeuroGEARS Limited, London, United Kingdom.
Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2021 Mar 31;15:647640. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.647640. eCollection 2021.
The ability to dynamically control a behavioral task based on real-time animal behavior is an important feature for experimental neuroscientists. However, designing automated boxes for behavioral studies requires a coordinated combination of mechanical, electronic, and software design skills which can challenge even the best engineers, and for that reason used to be out of reach for the majority of experimental neurobiology and behavioral pharmacology researchers. Due to parallel advances in open-source hardware and software developed for neuroscience researchers, by neuroscience researchers, the landscape has now changed significantly. Here, we discuss powerful approaches to the study of behavior using examples and tutorials in the Bonsai visual programming language, towards designing simple neuroscience experiments that can help researchers immediately get started. This language makes it easy for researchers, even without programming experience, to combine the operation of several open-source devices in parallel and design their own integrated custom solutions, enabling unique and flexible approaches to the study of behavior, including video tracking of behavior and closed-loop electrophysiology.
基于实时动物行为动态控制行为任务的能力，对实验神经科学家来说是一项重要特性。然而，设计用于行为研究的自动化实验箱需要机械、电子和软件设计技能的协同组合，这甚至会难倒最优秀的工程师，因此以往大多数实验神经生物学和行为药理学研究人员都无法企及。由于神经科学研究人员为神经科学研究开发的开源硬件和软件取得了并行进展，现在情况已发生了显著变化。在此，我们通过使用盆景视觉编程语言中的示例和教程，来讨论研究行为的强大方法，旨在设计简单的神经科学实验，帮助研究人员立即上手。这种语言使研究人员即使没有编程经验，也能轻松并行组合多个开源设备的操作，并设计自己的集成定制解决方案，从而实现独特且灵活的行为研究方法，包括行为视频跟踪和闭环电生理学。
