Introduction

Small animals such as nematodes and insects analyze airborne chemical cues to infer the direction of favorable and noxious locations. In these animals, the study of navigational behavior evoked by airborne cues has been limited by the difficulty of precisely controlling stimuli. We present a system that can be used to deliver gaseous stimuli in defined spatial and temporal patterns to freely moving small animals. We used this apparatus, in combination with machine-vision algorithms, to assess and quantify navigational decision making of Drosophila melanogaster larvae in response to ethyl acetate (a volatile attractant) and carbon dioxide (a gaseous repellant).

Publications

  1. Controlling airborne cues to study small animal navigation.
    Cite this
    Gershow M, Berck M, Mathew D, Luo L, Kane EA, Carlson JR, Samuel AD, 2012-01-01 - Nature methods

Credits

  1. Marc Gershow
    Developer

    Department of Physics and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, United States of America

  2. Matthew Berck
    Developer

  3. Dennis Mathew
    Developer

  4. Linjiao Luo
    Developer

  5. Elizabeth A Kane
    Developer

  6. John R Carlson
    Developer

  7. Aravinthan D T Samuel
    Investigator

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Summary
AccessionBT000363
Tool TypeApplication
Category
PlatformsLinux/Unix
Technologies
User InterfaceTerminal Command Line
Download Count0
Submitted ByAravinthan D T Samuel