Feeding is critical for survival and disruption in the mechanisms that govern food intake underlie disorders such as obesity and anorexia nervosa. It is important to understand both food intake and food motivation to reveal mechanisms underlying feeding disorders. Operant behavioral testing can be used to measure the motivational component to feeding, but most food intake monitoring systems do not measure operant behavior. Here, we present a new solution for monitoring both food intake and motivation: The Feeding Experimentation Device version 3 (FED3). FED3 measures food intake and operant behavior in rodent home-cages, enabling longitudinal studies of feeding behavior with minimal experimenter intervention. It has a programmable output for synchronizing behavior with optogenetic stimulation or neural recordings. Finally, FED3 design files are open-source and freely available, allowing researchers to modify FED3 to suit their needs. In this paper we demonstrate the utility of FED3 in a range of experimental paradigms.

中文翻译：

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喂养实验设备版本3（FED3）：一种开源家庭笼兼容设备，用于测量食物摄入和操作行为

进食对于控制食物摄取的机制中的生存和破坏至关重要，这些疾病是肥胖和神经性厌食症等疾病的基础。重要的是要同时了解食物摄入和食物动机，以揭示导致进食障碍的机制。操作者行为测试可用于测量喂养的动机因素，但是大多数食物摄入监控系统无法测量操作者行为。在这里，我们提出了一种用于监视食物摄入和动力的新解决方案：喂养实验装置版本3（FED3）。FED3可测量啮齿动物笼中的食物摄入量和操作行为，从而能够以最少的实验人员干预纵向研究喂养行为。它具有可编程输出，用于使行为与光遗传学刺激或神经记录同步。最后，FED3设计文件是开源的并且免费提供，使研究人员可以修改FED3以适应他们的需求。在本文中，我们演示了FED3在一系列实验范式中的实用性。