OSCAR: an open-source controller for animal research

Dastin-van Rijn, E. M.; Sachse, E.; Iacobucci, F.; Mensinger, M.; Widge, A.

doi:10.1101/2023.02.03.527033

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2023.02.03.527033

OSCAR: an open-source controller for animal research

Dastin-van Rijn, E. M.·Sachse, E.·Iacobucci, F.·Mensinger, M.·Widge, A.

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Abstract

Operant animal behavior training and monitoring is fundamental to scientific inquiry across fields necessitating evaluation via controlled laboratory tasks. However, current commercial and open-source systems enforce particular hardware and software, limiting reproducibility and technique and data sharing across sites. To address this issue, we developed OSCAR: an open-source controller for animal research that enables flexible control of a variety of industry standard hardware with platform-independent software. OSCAR offers millisecond latency with a flexible array of inputs and outputs at a fraction of the cost of commercial options. These features position OSCAR as a valuable option for improving consistency of behavioral experiments across studies.

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Dastin-van Rijn, E. M., Sachse, E., Iacobucci, F., Mensinger, M., Widge, A.. 2023-02-04. OSCAR: an open-source controller for animal research. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.02.03.527033

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