Conditioning planaria : device design based on an autonomous, large-scale parallel approach

Abstract

Current behavioral research is conducted on planaria that have been conditioned manually, one at a time by a person. In an attempt to instrument at an organism level, a design for an environment that automatically conditions multiple planaria in parallel was produced. This design consisted of a testing chamber that could stimulate the planaria using electrical shock and light. A computer program was also written to automatically record the results of the experiments for later analysis by researchers. This design was tested and the results were inconclusive based on technical issues with the experimental procedure. Further research is necessary to determine the validity of this device's ability to condition planaria.