title: A portable system for monitoring the behavioral activity of Drosophila.
abstract: We describe a low-cost system for monitoring the behavioral activity of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. The system is readily adaptable to one or more cameras for simultaneous recordings of behavior from different angles and can be used for monitoring multiple individuals in a population at the same time. Signal processing allows discriminating between active and inactive periods during locomotion or flying, and quantification of subtler movements related to changes in position of the wings or legs. The recordings can be taken continuously over long periods of time and can thus provide information about the dynamics of a population. The system was used to monitor responses to caffeine, changes in temperature and g-force, and activity in a variable size population.
authors: Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors: Omer T
authors: OT
authors: Inan
authors: Oana
authors: O
authors: Marcu
authors: Max E
authors: ME
authors: Sanchez
authors: Sharmila
authors: S
authors: Bhattacharya
authors: Gregory T A
authors: GT
authors: Kovacs
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D016288:Computer Terminals; D004330:Drosophila; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014741:Video Recording / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*