Reinhold Lab

Interactive demonstration

Explore the 3D rig

Enter a dedicated view to rotate the apparatus, find the loading position, and compare cue and distractor trials.
Laboratory photograph of the mouse reaching rig
Mouse reaching rig and pellet-presentation apparatus

Resources

Mouse reaching rig and analysis pipeline

This page provides resources associated with our bioRxiv preprint. The paper describes a pipeline for skilled pellet reaching in mice, including a customizable pellet-presentation rig, a behavioral training protocol, and video-based analysis code for detecting reaches and classifying outcomes. This page will serve as the living resource page for updated code, design files, build notes, and related materials.

Publication

Annabel Chang, Adithya Madduri, Janet Berrios Wallace, Junzheng Wang, and Kimberly Reinhold. A paradigm for skilled forelimb reaching by head-restrained mice. bioRxiv. 2026.

Please cite the preprint if you use the rig design, training protocol, code, or related materials.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see all materials.

Scientific figure showing categories used to classify reaching-related behavioral events
Video-based behavioral classification

01

Behavior rig

Behavior rig. Design files and build notes for the pellet loader, pellet positioner, mouse house, and related assembly components, with Arduino control code.

  • Laser-cut .ai files
  • 3D-print .stp files
  • Arduino control code linked below

02

Analysis pipeline

Analysis pipeline. Code for video-based detection of reaches, pellet availability, chewing, reach outcomes, and related behavioral events.

  • Current pipeline is in Matlab.
  • Full Python rewrite in progress! Stay tuned.
  • Project uses two repositories: reach-behavior-analysis and reachBehavior.
  • Note: reach-behavior-analysis must be placed higher in the directory structure.