JPH07178123A - Method to count number of water drinking actions of laboratory small animals and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To offer a method to count the number of water drinking actions of laboratory animals and an apparatus therefor, which eliminates troubles relating to the floor of rearing cage, wiring, etc., and enables to make the apparatus cheaper and smaller. CONSTITUTION:When laboratory small animals lick the automatic water supply nozzle 12 as their water drinking actions, the time constant determining the breadth of output pulse of the monostable circuit multi-vibrator 3 varies as the floating capacitance element 8 of small animals and the capacitance element of the condenser 7 equipped outside of the mono-stable circuit multi-vibrator 3 are connected in parallel. As the result, the breadths of output pulses from the monostable circuit multi-vibrators 2 and 3 become different and the components which are not setoff with each other are outputted from the logic aggregating circuit 10 as output signals, which output is inputted into the output circuit 11 and then outputted after the signal processing. In such output, licking by laboratory small animals of automatic water supply nozzle 12 as their water drinking actions is shown as the output signals and the number of water drinking actions of laboratory small animals can be measured by counting such output signals.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for measuring the number of watering behaviors for small experimental animals (mouse, rat, guinea pig, etc.) for measuring the number of times the small experimental animals contact the water supply nozzle for watering behavior. It relates to the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional watering behavior frequency measuring device for small animals is provided with a potential difference between a water supply nozzle and the floor of a living room, and the water supply nozzle is generated when an animal licks the water supply nozzle.
The weak current flowing in the animal-bed loop was detected and counted.

[0003]

However, the above-described conventional method and apparatus for measuring the number of times of watering behavior for small animals have the following problems. That is, in the conventional method and apparatus for measuring the number of water-feeding behaviors for small animals, the floor of the animal room must be metal (conductive), and it is used in a resin cage that is generally applied as an animal cage. could not. Moreover, in the wiring of the electric wire, two electric wires of a positive electrode and a negative electrode were required. Therefore, when measuring a large number of animals, there is a drawback in that it is troublesome to remove and reconnect the installation wiring and the cage when cleaning. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems in the prior art, and a method and a device for measuring the number of water-feeding behaviors for experimental animals that can reduce the size of the device at low cost by eliminating the trouble of the floor and wiring of the breeding cage. It is intended to be provided.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems] That is, an apparatus for measuring the number of water intake behaviors of small experimental animals of the present invention comprises a reference pulse signal generating means and a pulse of a constant length connected in parallel to the reference pulse signal generating means. A pair of pulse generating means, an AND circuit connected to one of the pulse generating means via an inverting circuit and directly connected to the other, and one pulse generating means to supply water to a small animal. It is characterized by comprising an automatic water supply nozzle arranged as described above. By using an integrated circuit in which two sets of monostable multivibrators are housed in one element as the pulse generating means, electrical variations can be eliminated. For example, a resistor and a capacitor are externally attached to the pulse generating means so as to generate a pulse signal having a constant length. The automatic water supply nozzle is connected to a resistor and a condenser of one of the pulse generating means, whereby a small animal licks the water supply nozzle to cause a difference in the output pulse of the pulse generating means and the number of times the nozzle is licked is detected. Further, the method for measuring the number of water-feeding behavior of experimental small animals of the present invention, the reference pulse is input to the pair of pulse generating means for generating a pulse signal of a constant length from the reference pulse signal generating means at a constant cycle, and the pair of While one of the output pulses of the pulse generating means is inverted by the inverting circuit and the two pulses are canceled by the AND circuit, one of the pulse generating means is connected to the automatic water supply nozzle that licks when the small animal takes watering action. The AND circuit detects a difference in output pulse width generated between the pair of pulse generating means due to a small change in capacitance component caused by a small animal licking the automatic water supply nozzle.

[0005]

Therefore, according to the method and apparatus for measuring the number of water-feeding behaviors of experimental small animals of the present invention, a pair of pulse generating means, for example, two sets of monostable multivibrators, are pulse signals of a constant period from the reference pulse signal generating means. Is input as a trigger signal and repeatedly output as a pulse signal having a constant pulse width according to the time constants of the resistor and the capacitor externally attached to each. In that case, if the time constants of the externally attached resistor and the capacitor are the same, the output with the same pulse width is obtained. When one of the output pulses is input to the inverting circuit, the inverting circuit generates a pulse signal having the same pulse width and the opposite amplitude. When two signals having the same pulse width but opposite amplitudes are input to the AND circuit, the AND circuit cancels each other and does not output. However, when the small experimental animal licks the automatic water supply nozzle for watering behavior, the stray capacitance of the small animal is connected in parallel with the capacitor external to one pulse generating means, and one pulse generating means is connected. The output pulse width of changes. As a result, the output pulse widths output from the pair of pulse generators are different, and the part that cannot be canceled out is output as an output signal from the AND circuit, which is output after signal processing in the output circuit and detected. To be done. This allows the small experimental animal to measure the number of water-feeding behaviors.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing a circuit configuration of a device for measuring the number of watering behaviors of small experimental animals according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, two sets of monostable multivibrators 2 and 3 are connected in parallel to a reference pulse oscillator 1, and these monostable multivibrators 2 and 3 are respectively housed in a package of one element and operate independently. To do. An external resistor 4 and a capacitor 6 or a resistor 5 and a capacitor 7 are connected to the monostable multivibrators 2 and 3, respectively. Therefore, the two sets of monostable multivibrators 2 and 3 housed in the one-element package operate independently and follow the reference pulse according to the time constant of the external resistor 4 and capacitor 6 or resistor 5 and capacitor 7. A pulse signal with a constant cycle from the signal oscillator 1 is input as a trigger signal, and a pulse signal with a constant pulse width is output. An inverting circuit 9 is connected to the monostable multivibrator-2, and an output terminal of the inverting circuit 9 is connected to an AND circuit 10. On the other hand, the monostable multivibrator 3 is directly connected to the AND circuit 10 without interposing an inverting circuit. Therefore, the output signal of the monostable multivibrator-2 is input to the AND circuit 10 as an inverted signal processed by the inverting circuit 9, while the output signal of the monostable multivibrator-3 is input to the AND circuit 10 as an uninverted signal. input. The AND circuit 10 includes an output circuit 11
Are connected, and the output signal of the AND circuit 10 is
Is output to the output circuit 11 as a detection signal. Now, the monostable multivibrator
3 is an automatic water supply nozzle 12 in parallel with the external condenser 7.
Are connected. The automatic water supply nozzle 12 is arranged so as to lick when a small animal takes a watering action. When the small animal pushes the tip of the automatic water supply nozzle 12, the automatic water supply nozzle 1
The outer wall of 2 and the tip are loosely sealed so that water flows out from this gap. As shown in the figure, a small animal pushes the tip of the automatic water supply nozzle 12, the seal between the outer wall and the tip of the automatic water supply nozzle 12 is loosened, and when the water intake action is performed in which water flows out from this gap, the small animal outputs the volume component 8. In other words, the capacity component 8 is generated when the small animal takes water. In the circuit configurations of the above-described embodiments, the two sets of monostable multivibrators 2 and 3 are electrically supplied because one IC package, that is, one IC is supplied in a package including two monostable multivibrators. There is no variation. In addition, the reference pulse signal oscillator 1, the inverting circuit 9,
The AND circuit 10 can also be configured by applying commercially available ICs, and has the advantages of being very simple, inexpensive, and low in power consumption. According to the apparatus for measuring the number of water-feeding behaviors of experimental small animals of the above examples, the number of water-feeding behaviors of small experimental animals is measured as follows. Two
The monostable multivibrator-2, 3 of the set inputs a pulse signal of a constant cycle from the reference pulse signal oscillator 1 as a trigger signal, and according to the time constant of the external resistor 4 and the capacitor 6, or the resistor 5 and the capacitor 7, , Output a pulse signal with a constant pulse width. If the time constants are the same, outputs with the same pulse width can be obtained. When one of the pulses is passed through the inverting circuit 9, a pulse signal having the same pulse width and the opposite amplitude is generated. When two signals having the same pulse width but opposite amplitudes are input to the AND circuit 10, the AND circuit 10 cancels each other and does not output. Therefore, in the steady state in which the experimental small animal does not perform the water-feeding behavior and does not lick the automatic water supply nozzle 12, the outputs of the monostable multivibrators-2 and 3 are canceled by the AND circuit 10 and the AND circuit 10 does not output. However, when the experimental small animal licks the automatic water supply nozzle 12 for watering behavior, the stray capacitance component 8 of the small animal is connected in parallel with the capacitance component of the external capacitor 5 of the monostable multivibrator-3, The time constant that determines the output pulse width of the monostable multivibrator-3 changes. As a result, the output pulse widths from the monostable multivibrators-2 and 3 are different, and the component that cannot be canceled out is output from the AND circuit 10 as an output signal, and the output is input to the output circuit 11 for signal processing. Then output. The output shows that the experimental small animal has licked the automatic water supply nozzle 12 for the watering action as an output signal, and by counting this, the experimental small animal can measure the number of times of the watering action. In this way, the device of the present invention makes it possible to easily and inexpensively measure the number of water-feeding behaviors of small experimental animals. Although the inverting circuit 9 is connected to the output side of the monostable multivibrator-2 in the above embodiment, it may be connected to the monostable multivibrator3 side. Further, by forming an integrating circuit for the signal of the AND circuit 10 in the preceding stage of the output circuit 11, it becomes possible to remove the noise signal and adjust the detection level.

[0007]

As described above, according to the method for measuring the number of water-feeding behaviors of experimental small animals and the apparatus thereof according to the present invention, a pair of pulse generating means for generating a pulse of a constant length, and one of the pulse generating means. Of the experimental small animal comprising an AND circuit which is connected to the other through an inverting circuit and is directly connected to the other, and an automatic water supply nozzle which is connected to one of the pulse generating means and is arranged so as to supply water to the small animal. While a water behavior frequency measuring device inverts one of the output pulses of the pair of pulse generating means by the inverting circuit and cancels the two pulses by the AND circuit, the small animal licks the automatic watering nozzle Since the difference between the output pulse widths generated between the pair of pulse generation means due to the change is detected by the AND circuit, the floor is made of resin which is not metal (conductive). It can also be used with a cable, and the wiring of the electric wire is simplified.For example, even when measuring for a large number of animals, the initial installation wiring is simple and the cage can be easily removed and reconnected when cleaning. Becomes

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit configuration diagram of an apparatus for measuring the number of watering behaviors of small experimental animals according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 is a reference pulse signal oscillator 2, 3 is a monostable multivibrator 4, 5 is an external resistor 6, 7 is an external capacitor 8 is a stray capacitance of a small animal 9 is an inverting circuit 10 is an AND circuit 11 is an output circuit 12 is water supply nozzle

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A reference pulse signal generating means, a pair of pulse generating means connected in parallel to the reference pulse signal generating means to generate a pulse of a fixed length, and an inverting circuit in one of the pulse generating means. Of an experimental small animal characterized by comprising an AND circuit connected through the other and directly connected to the other, and an automatic water supply nozzle connected to one of the pulse generating means so as to supply water to the small animal. A device for measuring the number of watering actions. 2. The apparatus for measuring the number of water intake behaviors of small experimental animals according to claim 1, wherein the pulse generating means is an integrated circuit in which two sets of monostable multivibrators are housed in one element. 3. The number of times of watering behavior of the small experimental animal according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a resistor and a capacitor are externally attached to the pulse generating means to generate a pulse signal of a constant length. measuring device. 4. An apparatus for measuring the number of water intake behaviors of experimental small animals according to claim 3, wherein the automatic water supply nozzle is connected to the resistance and the condenser of one of the pulse generating means. 5. A reference pulse is input at a constant cycle to a pair of pulse generating means for generating a pulse signal of a fixed length from the reference pulse signal generating means, and one of the output pulses of the pair of pulse generating means is an inverting circuit. By inverting the two pulses by an AND circuit, and connecting one pulse generating means to an automatic water supply nozzle that licks when the small animal takes watering action, and the small animal licks the automatic water supply nozzle. A method for measuring the number of watering behaviors of small experimental animals, which is characterized by detecting a difference in output pulse width generated between a pair of pulse generating means by a minute change in capacitance component, with an AND circuit.