Mouse retrieving water reward during behavioral testing in the DIY-NAMIC system
Assembled DIY-NAMIC hardware
DIY-NAMIC cage
Mouse perspective
DIY-NAMIC testing is compatible with ventilated high-density racked cages
The DIY-NAMIC box is a customizable, low-cost apparatus for automated homecage operant behavioral testing. Made with Arduino microprocessor, 3D printed parts, and various off-the-shelf components, the boxes enable 24-hour data collection, significantly increasing trials/day without food or water restriction, and allowing for self-initiated trials during rodent's dark/active phase.
Most importantly, this is an open-source project - any contributions / suggestions / feedback are welcome and appreciated!
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Decreased Experiment Length
Rodents have 24 hour access self-initiated trials allowing hundreds of trials per day. This allows for faster testing, reducing the number of days that many standard operant paradigms typically takes to run. This also permits testing during developmental time periods which can be very limited in rodents. -
Inexpensive compared to commercially available operant testing chambers
All the materials used to make one DIY-NAMIC box cost around $200, compared to$4000-$10,000 for the commercially-available units, which have limited customizability. -
No food or water restriction
Mice consume their normal daily intake of water, and no food deprivation is required. The sated condition is important for the interpretation of many behavioral effects. Additionally, this allows testing during development when food/water deprivation can be deleterious to growth. -
Reduced daily experimenter effort
There is minimal daily effort required from the experimenter, since mice are living in their homecage, and data is logged in realtime. -
More ethologically-relevant testing
Through self-initiated trials, mice can perform during their standard dark/active phase of the light-dark cycle.
The purpose of this repository is to provide hardware manuals, documentation, and code for anyone who would like to use and/or modify the DIY-NAMIC system.
- Feeding Experimentation Device (FED) - Kravitz Lab
- CombiCage - Loos Lab
- ArControl - Li Lab
- Openmaze.org - open source hardware and software for behavioral neuroscience
- Openbehavior.com - repository of open source tools for advancing behavioral neuroscience research]
A big thanks to Andrew R. Alvarenga for his generous support and suggestions regarding hardware. Thank you for also allowing me to use the machine shop and test out different prototypes of the 3D printed parts on the 3D printer.
Thank you to undergraduate researchers Bonnie Shea and Selin Capan for assisting with daily running of the code.
For any questions or issues, contact Jun Ho Lee at jun.ho.lee@dartmouth.edu or Katherine Nautiyal at katherine.nautiyal@dartmouth.edu.