LickoSys is a highly
automated device to study drinking associated behavioral
changes caused by anxiolytic drugs in laboratory
animals, especially rats. Each animal cage is equipped
with a metal tube through which the animal can drink.
During the experiment the system counts the number
of licks (drinking occurrence) and meanwhile can
provide programmable current shock patterns through
the drinking tube. Besides current shock the system
is also able to generate sound effects. The correlation
between the applied shock pattern and the drinking
disposition of the animal can provide relevant information
on the effects different drugs exert on the nervous
system.
Real-time graphical representation
of lick responses.
The DSP based controller
designed for this particular application can handle
up to 8 animal cages in parallel. The controller
provides independent multi-cage control with high
resolution event sampling. Each cage can have its
own dedicated experimental program. The controller
can provide current and sound shock patterns and
count the number of licks for each cage. Connection
to the host PC is based on an RS-232 serial link.
The graphical user interface running on the host
PC provides, among others, 8-channel simultaneous
data recording, programmable experimental parameters
and real-time graphical representation of lick responses
and shock delivery.
LickoSys has been
developed in cooperation with Experimetria Ltd.,
and the Laboratory of CNS-Pharmacology of the EGIS
Pharmaceutical Co. Our company has provided the
complete system specification, hardware design,
development of the measuring algorithms, DSP and
graphical user interface programming.
