Getting Started#
Aeon is an open-source platform designed to study the neural basis of natural behaviours over naturalistic timescales, from weeks to months. It features a modular, scalable, and programmable arena where animals live. Equipped with various interactive and non-interactive modules like feeders, nesting areas, microphones, RFID readers, and high-speed cameras, this setup mimics complex environments, allowing
animals to exhibit natural behaviours such as foraging, nesting, and social interaction, and
continuous tracking of animal position, pose, and identity, providing a means to quantify the animal’s behavioural dynamics and internal states at millisecond resolution.
Further information about the project can be found in the About section.
Tutorials#
Online tracking of multiple animals in the Aeon arena.
Week-long recording and analysis of Neuropixels data.
Repositories#
The Aeon infrastructure is complex and multi-dimensional, spanning hardware, acquisition software, standard data formats, and a low-level API for data analysis. As each of these different components is built using different languages, spanning CAD programs, C# and Python, we organise Aeon into the following repositories:
Aeon’s main library for interfacing with acquired data
Aeon experiment workflows written in the Bonsai visual programming language
Source code for the aeon_acquisition Bonsai package used in
Aeon experiment workflows
Python modules for analysis of Aeon experiment data
Source code for actuating a linear drive motor used in Aeon experiments
Source code for pellet delivery via feeders used in Aeon experiments
Note
All experiment data is acquired and/or triggered and/or synced by
Harp devices.
Code in the aeon_acquisition and aeon_mecha repositories makes use of
the Harp protocol during data acquisition,
raw data file writing, and raw data file reading.
See also the documentation on
Harp device operation and common registers,
the Harp binary protocol, and
Harp clock synchronization.