Meeting Abstract
Female Astatotilapia burtoni, a species of mouthbrooding cichlid, voluntarily starve themselves for two weeks while their young develop. Little is known about the physiological mechanisms that have evolved to allow them to accomplish this. A. burtoni therefore represent an excellent animal model in which to study the mechanisms that integrate the regulation of feeding and reproduction. Females with broods in their mouths do not feed, even if the brood is removed from the buccal cavity. This suppression of appetite, termed brood care motivation (BM), has previously been measured as the reduction in the quantity of food a female will consume. Here we develop an Arduino-based robotic system for the automatic quantification of brood care motivation in the mouth-brooding African cichlid A. burtoni. This advance will eliminate the consummatory act of feeding in the process of quantifying brood care motivation and allow us to investigate the underlying neural and physiological mechanisms. The Arduino-based system is routinely used for teaching-robots in High School education, these experiments offer the opportunity for outreach and collaboration.
