Many studies in neuroscience use head-fixed behavioral preparations, which confer a number of advantages, including the ability to limit the behavioral repertoire and use techniques for large-scale monitoring of neural activity. But traditional studies using this approach use extremely limited behavioral measures, in part because it is difficult to detect the subtle movements and postural adjustments that animals naturally exhibit during head fixation. Here we report a new head-fixed setup with analog load cells capable of precisely monitoring the continuous forces exerted by mice. The load cells reveal the dynamic nature of movements generated not only around the time of task-relevant events, such as presentation of stimuli and rewards, but also during periods in between these events, when there is no apparent overt behavior. It generates a new and rich set of behavioral measures that have been neglected in previous experiments. We detail the construction of the system, which can be 3D-printed and assembled at low cost, show behavioral results collected from head-fixed mice, and demonstrate that neural activity can be highly correlated with the subtle, whole-body movements continuously produced during head restraint.

神经科学方面的许多研究都使用固定的行为准备，这些准备具有许多优点，包括限制行为库的能力以及使用用于大规模监视神经活动的技术。但是使用这种方法的传统研究使用的行为措施极为有限，部分原因是很难检测到动物在固定头部时自然表现出的细微运动和姿势调整。在这里，我们报告了一种带有模拟称重传感器的新的头戴式固定装置，该装置能够精确监视鼠标施加的连续力。称重传感器不仅显示出与任务相关的事件（例如，刺激和奖励的表现）周围，而且在这些事件之间没有明显的明显行为的时间段内产生的运动的动态性质。它产生了一套新的丰富的行为指标，这些指标在以前的实验中已被忽略。我们详细介绍了该系统的构造，该系统可以低成本进行3D打印和组装，显示从头戴固定式鼠标收集的行为结果，并证明神经活动可以与在此过程中连续产生的微妙的全身运动高度相关头枕。