Behavioural Systems
Mightex Systems, with operations based in Toronto, Canada, and in the Silicon Valley,
California, is a leading supplier of photonic products and services for a broad spectrum of applications including
industrial imaging, bio-photonic solutions, LED illumination, machine vision, life & health sciences, and
industrial test & measurement etc.
Website: https://www.mightexbio.com/
OASIS Implant – Freely Behaving Cellular Resolution Calcium Imaging and Optogenetics
Understand the Link Between Neural Circuits and Behaviour
The OASIS Implant is a ground-breaking platform for simultaneous cellular-resolution optogenetics and calcium
imaging in freely-behaving animals to probe complex neuronal networks in the deep-brain, cortex, and multiple
brain regions, or spinal cord.
- Freely-Behaving Calcium Imaging and Optogenetics
- Cellular-Resolution Optogenetics
- Multi-Region Investigation
- Reconfigurable Platform
- High-Quality Imaging with Scientific Cameras
A Different Approach to Integrated Freely-Behaving Calcium Imaging and Optogenetics
To offer neuroscientists the ability to stimulate and visualize individual neurons in freely-behaving animals,
Mightex’s engineers went back to the drawing board and pioneered a new path in the in vivo calcium imaging field.
Instead of miniaturizing and placing the microscope on the animal – thereby limiting the microscope’s features and
the animal’s behaviour – we kept the microscope out of the animal’s head by making use of long and flexible
imaging fibers.
How It Works
By keeping the microscope away from the animal’s head, the OASIS Implant accomplishes 2 main goals:
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PhenoSys is a research- and development-oriented company based in Berlin, Germany. They
engineer and market cutting edge technology for automated animal behaviour research. Their team draws on extensive
expertise of electrical and mechanical engineering, computer science, and behavioural biology.
PhenoSys offers unique, automated instrumentation in the field of behaviour biology. This includes
specialised applications of virtual reality and touch screen technology for animal behaviour environments and RFID
(transponder) operated devices in home cage environments. Phenosys’ experimental systems are used for behavioural
phenotyping, brain research, experimental psychology, and the diagnostic characterisation of animal models for
translational medicine.
Website: https://www.phenosys.com/
Virtual Reality Systems enable rats and mice to enter a virtual reality world. These platforms offer a
revolutionary concept for research on animal learning, memory, cognition, and navigation. They provide an
environment of optimal control when investigating how animals process complex information. Furthermore, simple and
complex behaviour can be explored in-depth.
Their VR platforms are highly flexible and modular solutions. Stimulation is not only visual but can be extended
to 3D sound, odours and tactile information. It is easy to interface to existing hard- and software for in-vivo
measurements or brain stimulation.
Jet Ball
The Jet Ball is a novel virtual reality experimental system. It is based on an air supported spherical
treadmill and allows a restrained animal to navigate in virtual space. Virtual reality provides an
experimental environment with optimal control and can be used for investigating navigation, cognition,
learning, and memory.
Restrained animals can be examined with electrophysiological and optogenetic methods while the animal performs
simple or complex behaviour.
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Servo Ball
The Virtual Reality Servo Ball is a novel virtual reality experimental system. It is based on an active,
servo driven spherical treadmill. It allows a video-tracked freely moving animal (e.g. mouse, rat) to navigate
in virtual space. Virtual reality provides a perfectly controllable experimental environment. It can be used
for investigating navigation, cognition, learning and memory.
A wide range of brain circuits can be stimulated through diverse operant protocols and multi-modal sensory
stimulation. For unrestrained animals even 24-hour experimentation is possible.
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Over the last decade touchscreen methods for rodents have become an efficient and powerful diagnostic method.
Touchscreens are now widely used for cognitive testing and therapeutic screening of rodent models for translational
research. They permit behavioural, lesion, and pharmacological studies.
Their touchscreen systems are integrated into Their automation technology platform. They have been designed to the
highest degree of automation available in the industry. They allow the testing of tens of individuals at
high-throughput rates with 24/7 automation without experimenter intervention. This minimizes human animal-handling
and cuts on labour cost.
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Individual Tracking with RFID-Technology
Mice and rats are highly social animals. Therefore, automated analysis of rodents living close together in
their social group requires sophisticated methods. For tracking individuals within the home cage for 24/7, PhenoSys
developed the innovative high resolution radio frequency identification technology. This powerful technology is
capable of supporting social behaviour video analysis and in an additional application is even suitable for
measuring locomotor activity of individuals.
Social Video
The analysis of social behaviour in rodent models represents a powerful translational tool, particularly for
studying psychiatric and neurological disorders. Social interactions of mice and rats are typically investigated
by a human observer scoring behavior from video data. However, the identification of a single animal within
groups of two or more uniform animals is difficult to perform.
The PhenoSys Social Video enhances video data by displaying RFID-based identification of individual animals in
the video. Video-embedded symbols specific to each individual allow the human observer to easily follow
individual animals throughout long videos.
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Activity Monitor
Activity and movement is a fundamental diagnostic parameter of animal behaviour. However, measuring long-term
individual movement within groups was not possible until now. Our Activity Monitor provides accurate individual
movement data with full automation. It is a unique solution for the long-term tracking of individual animals
living in groups.
The sensor plate placed underneath a cage detects individuals and tracks them as they move through the cage.
Automated and long-term assessment of individual activity is made possible without having to place individuals
in separate cages. The Activity Monitor utilizes RFID-technology.
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Automated Group Cage (AGC)
The Automated Group Cage allows evaluation of sensory function, learning, cognition, and emotion while
animals live stress-free in a social group in their home cage. It operates with high-throughput efficiency,
significantly reducing lab resources.
The Automated Group Cage allows extensive behavioral diagnostics of neurological or psychiatric symptoms of brain
function.
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In multi-cage environments the selective passage of transponder-tagged animals or simply the registration of
individual movement is possible with our ID-Sorter and ID-Tube.
ID-Sorter
It is beneficial for animals to live in groups rather than in single housing. Many behavioural diagnostic
tests, however, require an individual animal to be alone while tested. Traditionally, this requires manually
placing an animal from a home cage to the test arena and back. This process is fully automated with the
ID-Sorter connecting the home cage to the test arena.
The ID-Sorter allows the selective passage of a single animal to the test arena and back. While in the operant
chamber individual experiments can be conducted with independent experimental control software. Our system can
be interfaced to operant systems from other vendors or to video observation systems.
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ID-Tube
The ID-Tube is an individual recognition sensor. It allows connecting two cages to multi-cage environments. It
senses the direction of movement of any animal passing. It allows monitoring the formation of social sub-groups.
It can be used to monitor spatial preferences.
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The multi-channel olfactometer provides fast-response odour stimulation. It is a sophisticated tool for
visualizing and quantifying activity in olfactory sensory neurons and the olfactory bulb for investigating olfactory
quality coding. Our olfactometer systems allow perfect control of multiple stimuli and stimulus concentration.
The preparation of high quality odour mixtures is a complex process. With the automated olfactometer and its
software this is made a standard laboratory routine that can be used and integrated easily for the behavioural
assessment of odour-detection and for odour discrimination behaviour.
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qOMR – quantitative optomotor response
The optomotor response (OMR) is a reflex used to assess visual function. To evoke OMR, a mouse watches a striped
pattern rotating within a cylinder. Stimulus-correlated head movements are quantified to determine visual
thresholds.
The PhenoSys qOMR (quantitative OMR) is a unique system that automatically measures the OMR with minimal
experimenter effort. It uses a virtual stimulation cylinder that continuously aligns with the animal´s head
position. Based on real-time head tracking, quantitative OMR measurements run fully automatically and objectively.
This is a PhenoSys Collaboration product that is brought to market together with its developer, Dr. Friedrich
Kretschmer.
- Simple, robust, and non-invasive test to examine vision in rodents
- Fully automated measurement and analysis: no manual positioning of the stimulus, no specially trained
experimenter required, time and cost effective, and unbiased
- As a reflex, OMR measurements do not require animal training
- Freely behaving animals, no surgery, no fixation
- Flexible, user-friendly experimental design and data handling.
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