Implementation of microfluidic technology to study small animal models such as Caenorhabditis elegans worms (soil-dwelling nematodes), Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) and larvae of Danio rerio (zebrafish) provides great opportunities for in vivo quantification of neuronal activities and behavioral responses. By controlling the internal environment, microfluidic devices can manipulate animal models with precision and cause minimal damage to the specimen. Due to these advantages, microfluidic devices have been applied to high-throughput drug screening, high-throughput brain-wide activity mapping, analyzing animals’ neuronal and behavioral responses to different external stimuli, microinjection, and neuronal regeneration. In this paper, we review different microfluidic devices and techniques that allow the manipulation of small animal models to study brain functions and behavioral responses. Furthermore, biomedical applications of microfluidic systems, technical challenges, and future directions in the whole brain and animal research on a chip will be discussed.

实施微流技术来研究小型动物模型，例如秀丽隐杆线虫（寄居线虫），果蝇果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）和果蝇（Danio rerio）的幼虫（斑马鱼）为体内定量神经元活动和行为反应提供了巨大的机会。通过控制内部环境，微流体设备可以精确地操纵动物模型，并且对标本的损害最小。由于这些优点，微流控设备已被应用于高通量药物筛选，高通量全脑活动图谱，分析动物对不同外部刺激，显微注射和神经元再生的神经元和行为反应。在本文中，我们回顾了允许操作小型动物模型以研究脑功能和行为反应的不同微流控设备和技术。此外，微流体系统的生物医学应用，技术挑战，