An opensource lickometer and microstructure analysis program

Aug 8, 2018

In HardwareX, an open access journal for designing, building and customizing opensource scientific hardware, Martin A. Raymond and colleagues share their design for a user-constructed, low-cost lickometer.


Researchers interested in ingestive behaviors of rodents commonly use licking behavior as a readout for the amount of fluid a subject consumes, as recorded by a lickometer. Commercially available lickometers are powerful tools to measure this behavior, but can be expensive and often require further customization. The authors offer their own design for an opensource lickometer that utilizes readily available or customizable components such as a PC sound card and 3D printed drinking bottle holder. The data from this device is collected by Audacity, and opensource audio program, which is then converted to a .csv format which can be analyzed using an R script made available by the authors to assess various features of licking microstructure. A full bill of materials, instructions for assembly and links to design files are available in the paper.

 

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_021589

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