NIDA IRP Technology Development Initiative Featured Paper

Image copyright: Nature

FARESHARE: An open-source apparatus for assessing drinking microstructure in socially housed rats

Published in Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience (2023)

Authors

Jude A. Frie and Jibran Y. Khokhar

Paper presented by Dr. Renata Marchette and selected by the NIDA TDI Paper of the Month Committee

Publication Brief Description

Monitoring drinking behavior in grouped housed animals can provide a more naturalistic setting that can facilitate the investigation of intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing drinking behavior (e.g. circadian rhythms and social hierarchy). The authors describe an open-source and cost-effective alternative to the limited commercial options. The system can measure both the volume consumed and drinking bouts microstructure in socially housed animals by employing short-range radio frequency identification. It is fully customizable and is compatible with standard housing cages; the Arduino system allows the integration of time-locked, closed-loop interventions, manipulations, and measurements (e.g., fiber photometry recordings, optogenetic stimulation/inhibition). Overall, the authors use step-by-step instructions to a describe a system for monitoring drinking behavior in rodents.

Frie, Jude A.; Khokhar, Jibran Y.

FARESHARE: An open-source apparatus for assessing drinking microstructure in socially housed rats Journal Article

In: NPP—Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1, 0000, ISBN: 2948-1570.

Abstract | Links

@article{cite-keyf,

title = {FARESHARE: An open-source apparatus for assessing drinking microstructure in socially housed rats},

author = {Jude A. Frie and Jibran Y. Khokhar},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s44277-024-00002-z},

doi = {10.1038/s44277-024-00002-z},

isbn = {2948-1570},

journal = {NPP—Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience},

volume = {2},

number = {1},

pages = {1},

abstract = {Social factors have been shown to play a significant and lasting role in alcohol consumption. Studying the role of social context on alcohol drinking is important to understand the factors that contribute to the initiation or maintenance of casual and problematic alcohol use, as well as those that may be protective. A substantial body of preclinical research has shown that social environment such as housing conditions and social rank plays an important role in alcohol consumption and preference, though the extent of these effects have been obfuscated by methodological differences and technical challenges. Robust individual differences in alcohol intake in socially housed animals are difficult to track when animals share a common fluid source. Commercial solutions are prohibitively expensive and are limited by proprietary software and hardware (including caging systems). Here we describe FARESHARE, an affordable, open-source solution for tracking fluid consumption in socially housed rats. The device uses RFID and custom hardware to individually measure and record each rat's fluid consumption and licking microstructure. Each bout is also timestamped such that the circadian effects of drinking behaviour may be analysed. We provide a validation showing the operation of the device in a two-bottle-choice alcohol-drinking paradigm over a nine-day period in four group-housed female rats. We show that FARESHARE is able to capture traditional measures such as daily intake and preference, as well as circadian effects, microstructure, and individual variations in drinking.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}