FAST, ACCURATE, AND LOW-COST SENSING OF REWARD CONSUMPTION AND LICK RESPONSES IN RODENTS

The accurate measurement of reward consumption and timing of that consumption is a key component of reward driven learning in psychology and neuroscience research. Likewise, food consumption is important in nutritional research to understand consummatory patterns. While previous methods can time lick responses in these sub fields of research, none can detect reward consumption or lick force. Moreover, these methods can introduce electrical artifacts in other sub-fields of research acquiring electrophysiological and electrochemical data. We have developed a novel, inexpensive, and open-source system to measure consummatory behavior in rats and mice for both solid and liquid food. Here we show that this system can accurately measure the amount of liquid or solid food dispensed and consumed by rats or mice with high temporal precision and accuracy. This lick detection system can be used to time individual licks, quantify the force of those licks, and can be used without introducing electrical artifacts into electrophysiological recordings while keeping calibration over extended periods of data collection