Caitlyn Trievel
Research Mentor: Ada Eban-Rothschild
Mentor Department: Psychology, LSA
Author(s): Caitlyn Trievel, Arpit Pradhan, Ada Eban-Rothschild
Session: Session 6 (3:00 PM – 3:50 PM)
Presentation Type: Poster 80
Abstract
Individuals are less responsive to their surroundings during sleep, but their brains still process salient sounds. The AER lab is interested in understanding the neural mechanisms that help decode these salient sounds during sleep. One challenge this research faces is the accessibility of open-source operant conditioning systems for long-term home-cage experiments. Home-cage systems enable researchers to study subjects in an environment more similar to their natural habitat, making them valuable research tools. However, existing open-source home-cage systems are costly to purchase and/or difficult to manufacture in-lab, and are not designed to provide precise stimuli for all experiments. To address this need, this project focused on developing a low-cost, open-source, easily reproducible Arduino-based home cage operant conditioning system modeled after the Feeding Experimentation Device 3 (FED3) to support the study of salient sounds during sleep. The system is designed to deliver a precise closed-loop auditory stimulus based on real-time sleep classification. In addition to introducing a platform for delivering salient sound stimuli, this project includes a modification to the FED3’s design to support precise temporal control and accuracy of feed pellet delivery for general home-cage experiments. Existing FED3 configurations exhibit variability in the pellet delivery timings, which may introduce unintended uncertainty for animals and affect operant conditioning performance. By removing this uncertainty and logging data on pellet dispensal time, the FED3 will achieve more consistent reinforcement timings and enhance data quality and reproducibility in home-cage based operant conditioning.
