RTFED, an open-source versatile tool for home-cage monitoring of behaviour and fibre photometry recording in mice

IF 2.5 4区医学 Q2 BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS

Journal of Neuroscience Methods Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-10-29 DOI:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110604

Hamid Taghipourbibalan, James Edgar McCutcheon

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Conventional approaches for studying feeding and reward-driven behaviours require frequent animal handling or relocation of animals to specialized chambers, inducing stress, confounding behavioural outcomes, and limiting continuous (24/7) data collection. In recent years, the Feeding Experimentation Device (FED3) has emerged as a major advance, offering programmable modes of operation, affordable costs, and flexibility for investigating a range of feeding and operant behaviours. However, certain limitations prevent researchers from fully harnessing the FED3’s capabilities in a user-friendly manner.

New method

Here, we present the Real-time and Remote FED3 (RTFED) developed for continuous and online home-cage monitoring of mice, video recording behaviours and fibre photometry recording.

Results

Validation experiments confirm RTFED integrates well with FED3 to log and transmit behavioural events in real-time. It also incorporates event-triggered video capture through USB cameras, providing additional observational depth. Moreover, RTFED handles TTL signals to the fibre photometry system allowing precise behaviour-neural synchronization.

Comparison with existing methods

A key strength of RTFED is its easily customizable architecture, enabling researchers to tailor both software and hardware configurations to meet specific experimental objectives. This flexibility, together with features such as remote data logging and email notifications that allow timely adjustments and animal welfare monitoring based on behavioural observations, substantially reduces animal disturbance and researcher intervention and labour.

Conclusions

By offering a cost-effective and modifiable alternative to proprietary commercial solutions, RTFED broadens accessibility, heightens reproducibility, and deepens investigations into feeding and reward-driven behaviours in home-cage settings, ultimately improving the quality and translational relevance of behavioural research.

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RTFED，一个开源的多功能工具，用于家庭笼中老鼠的行为监测和纤维光度测定记录。

背景：研究喂养和奖励驱动行为的传统方法需要经常处理动物或将动物重新安置到专门的房间，这会引起压力，混淆行为结果，并限制连续（24/7）的数据收集。近年来，喂养实验装置（FED3）已经成为一项重大进步，提供可编程的操作模式，可负担的成本，以及研究一系列喂养和操作行为的灵活性。然而，某些限制使研究人员无法以用户友好的方式充分利用FED3的功能。新方法：在这里，我们提出了实时和远程FED3 （RTFED）开发的连续和在线家庭笼子监测小鼠，视频记录行为和纤维光度记录。结果：验证实验证实RTFED与FED3集成良好，可以实时记录和传输行为事件。它还通过USB摄像头集成了事件触发视频捕获，提供了额外的观测深度。此外，RTFED处理TTL信号到纤维测光系统，允许精确的行为-神经同步。与现有方法的比较：RTFED的一个关键优势是其易于定制的架构，使研究人员能够定制软件和硬件配置，以满足特定的实验目标。这种灵活性，加上远程数据记录和电子邮件通知等功能，可以根据行为观察进行及时调整和动物福利监测，大大减少了动物干扰和研究人员的干预和劳动。结论：通过提供一种具有成本效益且可修改的专有商业解决方案，RTFED拓宽了可及性，提高了可重复性，并深化了对家庭笼环境中喂养和奖励驱动行为的调查，最终提高了行为研究的质量和转化相关性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Neuroscience Methods 医学-神经科学

CiteScore

7.10

自引率

3.30%

发文量

226

审稿时长

52 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of Neuroscience Methods publishes papers that describe new methods that are specifically for neuroscience research conducted in invertebrates, vertebrates or in man. Major methodological improvements or important refinements of established neuroscience methods are also considered for publication. The Journal''s Scope includes all aspects of contemporary neuroscience research, including anatomical, behavioural, biochemical, cellular, computational, molecular, invasive and non-invasive imaging, optogenetic, and physiological research investigations.