Operant & Conditioning Chambers
Help me choose
What are you building?
Compare product families
Operant systems are chosen by what the animal has to do, and by how much of the session you want scored automatically. The live product grid above is the source for current models, prices, and stock.
| Build | What it measures | Automation | Watch-out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard operant chamber | Lever pressing, nose poke, reinforcement schedules | Manual to fully automated | Confirm the reward device matches the reinforcer |
| Self-administration chamber | Drug or reward self-administration, progressive ratio | Fully automated | Needs pump integration and a tether or swivel |
| Touchscreen chamber | Visual discrimination, reversal learning | Fully automated | Software and task library matter more than hardware |
| 5-CSRTT attention system | Sustained attention, impulsivity | Fully automated | Five-hole wall and precise timing are required |
| Manual chamber | Any operant task, scored from video | Manual | Scoring time grows with cohort size |
Free calculators & tools
Plan, score, and analyze your study
FAQ
Common questions
Manual, semi-automated, or fully automated?
Manual chambers are the lowest cost and fine for small cohorts scored from video. Semi- and fully-automated builds add sensors, automated doors, and reward delivery, which raises throughput and removes experimenter bias. The extra cost is usually recovered in scoring time once cohorts get large.
What do I need for a self-administration study?
A chamber with an infusion line, a syringe pump, and a tether or swivel, plus software to log active and inactive responses. Specify the reinforcer and the schedule (fixed ratio, progressive ratio) in the quote, since they determine which modules are required.
Will the chamber integrate with my existing software?
Tell us what you already run, including Med-PC exports or TTL synchronisation with photometry or optogenetics. Integration is usually a matter of matching TTL lines and file formats, and it is far cheaper to specify up front than to retrofit.
Can I analyse sessions I have already run?
Yes. The operant session analyzer linked above reads exported session files and computes response rates, reinforcement, and inter-response times without new hardware.
How many animals do I need?
That depends on the effect size and the paradigm rather than the chamber. Use the sample-size calculator linked above with your expected effect, then size the number of chambers to your session throughput.
