airtrack-v2-documentation

Airtrack - plus maze - Bpod version

Vision

We want to do electrophysiological recordings (Neuropixel) on mice performing the plus maze behavior experiment in the Airtrack system (Dominiak et al 2018 / Bergmann et al. 2020). The setup should do the behavior while we record electrophysiological data. Video data is used to monitor eye and whiskers movement.

Changes from version without recording:

Recording needs better electrical isolation
Markers for platform tracking are now visible from above

people involved

Robert Sachdev (supervision)
Jens Kremkow (supervision)
Fabio Reeh (master student)

People doing similar things in the lab:

Moritz (behavior)
Jelte, Mik (Neuropixel)
Quon
Eduardo (lick sensing)

Research roadmap

Hardare change (until July):

- past: using Arduino, Flashlights from below, UV lamps from above

- new lick detection system from workshop (dual lick sensor) : used by Eduardo in another experiment.
- Bpod r2+
- Lightniing (marker detection needs more light): 
    - LED for mouse feedback (same as before)
    - marker needs light : Infrared lamps (we have experience with it for other behavior).


- Fix the lick detector: Eduardo asked the workshop already - current power supply to noisy

Behavior (until September):

can the animal move the thing - yes, the 100 gramm heavy platform is good moveable by the mouse
train the animal to get reward

Experiments (until Feburary 2026)

2 batch of 3 animals.

Design choices

UV lamps on batteries/plugin (noise if not shielded) may be used if infrared does not work.
We will try the big platform, a smaller one might be needed to be used later
Headpost chosen which does not cover brain areas we want to investigate
Use the multi chain version of Neuropixel

Eye/whiskers tracking

Video data
Post experiment analysis
ML analysis with sleap
UV marker at the wisker

dependencies

Hardware: - Bpop - neuropixel Software: - Matlab - Spikeglx will be used for data analysis - video data analysis with sleap