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The Maze Engineer’s advanced Lickometers employ highly accurate optical sensors for measuring licks rewarded with either water or sucrose. The versatile lick port is capable of adjustable movement in multiple directions—up, down, left, and right—and securely locks into position at any desired point. Customized acrylic enclosures, mazes, cages, containers, and lids are tailored specifically to your specifications upon ordering.
Our ConductMaze software features OpenAPI integration, enabling seamless adjustments and effortless plugin creation to endlessly expand the capabilities of any maze design.
Easily customizable: It can integrate seamlessly with any maze, offering novel activity protocols and distinct habitat enclosures. A wide range of colors, sizes, and various configurations of lickometers are also at your disposal.
$395.00 – $1,095.00
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Lickometers are instrumental in studying ingestive behaviors of rodents, analyzing reward-based behaviors, and metabolic processes. They also play a crucial role in investigating circadian rhythms and assessing the impact of pharmacological or genetic interventions on circadian biology.
These devices monitor rodents’ licking behaviors via a specialized spout equipped with optical sensors. Upon licking, the lickometers dispense sucrose or liquid rewards. Sucrose rewards can additionally be used to explore anhedonia in rodent models of depression and substance withdrawal. Lickometers facilitate the study of preference behaviors toward different liquids by comparing licking frequencies across options. They also enable the assessment of dose-dependent behavioral effects of acute or chronic drug treatments through analysis of licking activity (Godynyuk et al., 2019).
MazeEngineers provides automated lickometers featuring adjustable lick ports that can be positioned vertically, horizontally, and locked securely at any point. Customizable acrylic enclosures, containers, and lids are tailored to specific requirements. These lickometers can seamlessly integrate with various maze configurations for diverse experimental protocols. Additionally, they offer customization options for color, size, and multiple configurations to meet specific research needs.
The automated lickometer employs optical sensors to dispense either sucrose or water rewards. It offers extensive customization options and adjustability, allowing the lick ports to be repositioned vertically, horizontally, and locked into place as needed. You can personalize its color and size according to your preferences.
Additionally, the lickometer comes equipped with ConductMaze software, featuring OpenAPI access. This functionality facilitates rapid modifications and the creation of plugins that seamlessly integrate with any maze setup.
The protocol can include delays in reward presentation or the delivery of the reward after a light is illuminated or a tone is presented to measure how these variables can influence liquid consumption.
Weatherly, Nurnberger, and Hanson (2005) investigated negative anticipatory contrast, which involves the decrease in consumption of a low-valued substance in the presence of a high-valued substance in Sprague-Dawley rats. Additionally, positive induction was also investigated, which involves the potential increase of low-value reinforcer responses if responding to a high-value reinforcer is possible. The factors that contributed to these behaviors were investigated, including auditory cues, temporal delays, location of substance delivery, and food reward. A couple of lickometers were placed in the subject’s home cage, which were used to deliver the sucrose reward of various concentrations. The lickometers could measure 10 licks. Three colored stimulus lights, of 0.6 cm in diameter each, were placed five centimeters above each lickometer. Yellow light was placed in the center, and red and green lights were placed on the left and right sides. The lights were used to indicate the presence of the sucrose reward. Temporal and auditory cues were manipulated by delaying the reward and sounding a tone during the presentation of the reward. Furthermore, trials involving separate locations to deliver the rewards were conducted by employing two separate spouts for reward delivery. The results indicated that temporal delays and auditory cues had no significant effect on whether the subjects’ consumption of 1% sucrose either increased or decreased when the consumption of 32% sucrose was near. Deprivation of sucrose promoted induction. Whether contrast or induction occurred also depended on whether consumption occurred from one spout in one location (induction) or two different spouts in two different locations (contrast).
Smith (2000) investigated rats’ intake of food (Purina Chow), saccharin, and sucrose over 24 hours to analyze preferences using a lickometer. Two drinking spouts could be placed on the lickometer. Eight adult male albino rats of around 130 days were used in the study. The baseline condition of food and water (without any sweetener) ingestion patterns were first investigated for two days. After baseline, a second bottle was added to the subjects’ home cages, which contained sweeteners of various concentrations (either sucrose or saccharin) for two days. The number of bouts, duration of bouts, rate of licking during bouts, the day and night intake patterns, and the juxtaposition of eating and drinking of the subjects was analyzed. The results revealed that water intake was zero when the lowest sucrose solution of 0.03 M was introduced to the home cage. Sucrose intake increased up to 0.25 M and then decreased at 0.5 M and 1.0 M presentations. Food intake also decreased as sucrose intake increased. Sucrose bouts decreased at concentrations up to 0.06 M but increased when concentrations went from 0.06 M to 0.5 M. Increased sucrose concentrations also caused juxtaposition of eating with drinking changes. Different results were observed when saccharin was introduced into the cage. Saccharin intake peaked at about 8 mM but was almost completely rejected by the subjects at 66mM. All saccharin concentrations demonstrated steady food intake. Moreover, food bout length and duration were steady at all concentrations. Increased saccharin concentration caused a gradual increase in saccharin bouts.
The following parameters can be observed using the Lickometer:
The Automated Lickometer employs optical sensors to accurately detect and record the licking frequency of rodents within specified time intervals. This data is crucial for analyzing various ingestive behaviors in rodents, including reward-based behaviors, metabolic processes, circadian rhythms, preference behaviors, and anhedonia.
Conduct Science provides customizable lickometers tailored to meet your specific experimental requirements. Additionally, reinforcement behaviors can be investigated by modifying the lickometer to deliver an aversive stimulus, such as a mild shock, when the subject licks the spout. Furthermore, alternative reinforcement strategies, such as food deprivation or delayed reward delivery, can also be implemented.
| Lickometer | Fiber Optic Feedback Sensor, Lickometer: Adjustable Height |
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