Behavior holder to headfix awake behaving rats with the REMY head-fixed behavior system for rats. The behavior holder is made of stainless steel. It comprises two dovetail rails, one horizontal and one vertical, for easy interfacing with Thorlabs’ 34 mm optical rails or equivalent. It also features several M6 threaded holes for attachment by means of screws to any compatible surface.
To get a rodent to run headfixed on any kind of treadmill often requires the ability to adjust the height of the animal’s head with regard to the treadmill’s surface, as well as further adjustments if the treadmill is a wheel or a sphere. Our holder allows several degrees of freedom in that respect: If the dovetail rails are chosen, depending on which one is being used, adjustment of the animal’s head position can be made vertically or to the front/back. Additionally, the holder can move along the front/back axis by several centimeters when the thumb screw is loosened. The pattern on the holder allows you to easily mark individual positional variations between experimental animals. Finally, you may attach the holder to a mobile frame (e.g. translation stage) for finer control of the animal’s head position.