behaviorMate: An Intranet of Things Approach for Adaptable Control of Behavioral and Navigation-Based Experiments

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Science
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Precise stimulus delivery and response timing are critical for behavioral experiments.
• Current solutions often involve proprietary systems with high costs or require custom software development.
• Multi-modal cue presentation needs fine-tuned control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce behaviorMate, an open-source system for precise control and data acquisition in behavioral experiments.
• To provide a flexible and cost-effective alternative to proprietary experimental control systems.
• To demonstrate the system's utility across diverse experimental paradigms and validation studies.

Main Methods:

• Utilizes an "Intranet of Things" approach with networked hardware and software components.
• Offers a graphical user interface (GUI) application and mechanical designs for experimental rigs.
• Outputs integrated timestamp-event pairs for downstream data analysis.

Main Results:

• Successfully demonstrated utility and reliability in various use cases from published studies.
• Validated efficacy and flexibility in hippocampal place field studies using treadmill and virtual reality paradigms.
• Confirmed suitability for head-fixed imaging experiments and potential for broader task control applications.

Conclusions:

• behaviorMate provides a flexible, open-source solution for precise behavioral experiment control and data acquisition.
• The system mitigates concerns associated with proprietary systems, including cost and customization.
• Its adaptability supports a wide range of experimental setups and analysis pipelines.