The above mouse is performing a self-paced center out joystick task for a fluid reward. Following a successful reach, there is a delay to reward followed by fluid delivery and then an intertrial interval. The task is written in C++ for Arduino and uses Switch Case logic defined by “Event Markers”. As seen in the left, the Event Marker changes with the task performance as follows:
EventMarker 0 : waiting for reach
EventMarker 1 : delay to reward
EventMarker 2 : fluid delivery
EventMarker 3 : intertrial interval.
Real time joystick position and threshold as well as task performance and parameters can be visualized using a Java based Processing sketch (above left).
This work has been published in eNuro, Belsey et al. 2020.