Last Updated on May 18, 2020
Introduction to Teleopto Wireless Optogenetic stimulation of mice, rats, and other small animals during behavioral testing.
Teleopto is a turnkey solution for optogenetic stimulation of mice, rats, and other small animals during behavioral experiments. Most systems use a stationary laser or LED and a long fiber optic cable for stimulation, limiting the ability of your animals to move during behavioral experiments. But since Teleopto is wireless, your research animals have complete freedom of movement and can move through doorways, tunnels, mazes, and even large open field environments.
The Teleopto system consists of remote control, wireless receiver headstages, and LED fiber-optic implants. The whole system is ready to use right out of the box. The remote sends an infrared signal to the receivers to turn the LEDs on and off. The receivers weigh as little as one gram and can be recharged between experiments. The implants are made to order with many options for light colors, single or bilateral fibers, fiber length, and fiber diameter. Two-color implants are available for use with bistable opsins or stimulation and inhibition at the same site.
You can adjust the light power with a screwdriver. For two-channel receivers, the power for each channel is adjusted independently. Using our LPM light meter to measure the output lets you ensure that each mouse or rat in a group receives the same irradiance at the target.
Between experiments, receivers are recharged. Battery life depends on how frequently and how intensely you stimulate your mice or rats. We offer larger receivers with larger batteries for use with rats and smaller receivers for use with mice. It’s easy to switch receivers during an experiment, so chronic experiments lasting many days are possible.
Teleopto can be controlled manually, but normally a programmable pulse generator is used to send pulse trains. Our pulse generator is easy to program and use, but if you already have one it will probably be compatible with Teleopto
The pulse generator can, in turn, be triggered by behavioral events. A nose poke, lever, video tracking system, or other equipment can easily be used to trigger the start or stop of a pulse train. Amuza can work with you to make certain your behavioral equipment is compatible with Teleopto.
Teleopto is great for scaleup: a single IR emitter can control multiple receivers on multiple mice or rats. With additional emitters, one remote can be used with multiple operant conditioning chambers or cages. Additional emitters can also make certain there are no dead spots in a maze or other complex environment. The emitters have a range of 1-2 meters depending on lighting, but we also have high power IR emitters for use in large open field environments.