Open Source Joystick

This week we want to talk about joy! I mean, joy-sticks. Parley Belsey, Mark Nicholas and Eric Yttri have developed and shared an open-source joystick for studying motor behavior and decision making in mice!

Mice are hopping and popping in research, and so researchers are using more creativity and innovation to understand the finite aspects of their behaviors. Recently, members of the Yttri lab at Carnegie Mellon used their skills to create an open source joystick for studying mouse motor and decision making behaviors! In their paper they describe the full behavioral set up (with headmounting system based on the RIVETS design from the Dudman lab), featuring a removable head fixation point, a sipping tube, and a joystick to measure reach trajectory, amplitude, speed, etc. Data is collected and devices are controlled via an Arduino, solenoid circuit, microSD card reader, and LCD readout, and data can be analyzed in real time or saved to a csv for analysis later. The Arduino can be programmed to signal reward delivery when a correct response is recorded from the joystick which streamlines outcome based reward delivery. Belsey et al. tested their device with adult mice, and the results of training can be found in the paper as well as the full build instructions and ideas for how their tool may be of interest to build and use in your lab.

This research tool was created by your colleagues. Please acknowledge the Principal Investigator, cite the article in which the tool was described, and include an RRID in the Materials and Methods of your future publications.  RRID:SCR_021442