University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697.
University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697
eNeuro. 2023 Jun 27;10(6). doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0018-23.2023. Print 2023 Jun.
Experiments that take advantage of head-fixed behavioral tasks have been a staple of systems neuroscience research for half a century. More recently, rodents came to the forefront of these efforts, primarily because of the rich experimental possibilities afforded by modern genetic tools. There is, however, a considerable barrier to entering this field, requiring expertise in engineering, hardware and software development, and significant time and financial commitment. Here, we present a comprehensive, open-source hardware and software solution to implement a head-fixed environment for rodent behaviors (HERBs). Our solution provides access to three frequently used experimental frameworks (two-alternative forced choice, Go-NoGo, or passive sensory stimulus presentation) in a single package. The required hardware can be built at a relatively low cost compared with commercially available solutions, from off-the-shelf components. Our graphical user interface-based software provides great experimental flexibility and requires no programming experience for either installation or use. Furthermore, an HERBs takes advantage of motorized components that allow the precise, temporal separation of behavioral phases (stimulus presentation, delays, response window and reward). Overall, we present a solution that will allow laboratories to join the growing community of systems neuroscience research at a substantially lower cost of entry.
半个世纪以来，利用头部固定行为任务的实验一直是系统神经科学研究的主要方法。最近，啮齿动物成为这些努力的前沿，主要是因为现代遗传工具提供了丰富的实验可能性。然而，进入这个领域存在相当大的障碍，需要工程、硬件和软件开发方面的专业知识，以及大量的时间和财务投入。在这里，我们提出了一个全面的、开源的硬件和软件解决方案，用于实现啮齿动物行为的头部固定环境（HERBs）。我们的解决方案在单个包中提供了三种常用的实验框架（二选一强制选择、Go-NoGo 或被动感觉刺激呈现）的访问权限。与商业上可用的解决方案相比，所需的硬件可以使用现成的组件以相对较低的成本构建。我们基于图形用户界面的软件提供了极大的实验灵活性，无论是安装还是使用都不需要编程经验。此外，HERBs 利用了机动组件，可以精确地、时间上分离行为阶段（刺激呈现、延迟、响应窗口和奖励）。总的来说，我们提出了一个解决方案，将使实验室能够以更低的进入成本加入不断发展的系统神经科学研究社区。
