Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
1-31-1987
Degree Name
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering - (M.S.)
Department
Electrical Engineering
First Advisor
Stanley S. Reisman
Second Advisor
Peter Engler
Third Advisor
Edwin Cohen
Fourth Advisor
Joseph B. Sia
Abstract
An instrumentation system has been designed to monitor feeding behavioral experiments on rats. This instrumentation system is capable of performing these experiments in an automated manner without any human intervention. It is capable of monitoring these experiments concurrently in six cages. It exhibits several features that make it more versatile than previous feeding & monitoring systems. It is also capable of storing the data generated on to a floppy disk and later printing out the data for analysis.
Another feature that makes it more versatile is the flexibility of the system. Construction of a parameter file before doing the experiment provides for various types of experiments. Moreover with little modification to the software, it will provide dynamic operations to adjust for eating activity changes during different time intervals.
The use of powder food and the well-designed mechanism make the system a spillage-less feeding system. This feature provides a more reliable way to estimate the amount of food consumed by rats than any other automated feeding system. Feeding consistency tests have been done on each feeder used in this system for two different types of powder food and for two different configurations of the feeder. Six Zucker rats were put on a free-feeding-based schedule and their eating activities were recorded. Investigation has been done on the meal pattern and the food ingestion frequency. Experimental results are presented, demonstrating the usefulness of the system.
Recommended Citation
Shih, Tseng-Huang, "Microcomputer-based automated feeding and monitoring system for eating behavior studies on rats" (1987). Theses. 3313.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/3313
