High-throughput system to study decision-making across multiple levels of reward and cost

We designed a system to study decision-making in rats: the Reward-Cost in Rodent Decision-making (RECORD) system. RECORD allows for the creation of a decision-making task battery which leverages natural behaviors in rodents such as searching for food or avoiding threats without the need for food-deprivation. RECORD has three components: 3D-printed configurable arenas, custom electronic hardware, and software for databasing, analysis, and computational modeling. RECORD is fully automated and high throughput, which facilitates the longitudinal study of large cohorts of animals, as well as being cost-effective and quick to build. We validate the ability of RECORD to assess decision-making through experiments comparing individual and sex differences in various cost-benefit conflict tasks. We demonstrate how alcohol, oxycodone, and gut hormone ghrelin manipulations alter decision-making. Using modeling we interpret differences in individual psychometric functions. RECORD measures decision-making functions in rodents similar to those observed in humans, integral to translational studies on psychiatric disorders.