One of the most commonly used 1D head-fixed behavioral apparatus is a basic treadmill. Let’s not argue on how easy or difficult to build a system like that.  We need to consider the level of quality that our device needs to be in order to reliably use it for a series of experiments. We can always ask microscope suppliers to have enough space under the objective, but looking at the option to purchase such a behavior device from a company like Phenosys, we can be sure it is compact and they designed it with a reason that it would fit under most of the microscopes.

Speed Belt by Phenosys is a well designed elegant simple product. Allowing the researcher to exchange the belt quite easily and quickly. It gives us some flexibility on the height and the angle which the mice run. It provides all the necessary data which can be requested from a 1D device.  The data can be received by USB, or via BNC (0-5V) cable if we would need to have an analog signal for any kind triggering purpose, like start imaging/stimulating when the mouse is at a given part of the treadmill.

There is a price as always, but we would use the SpeedBelt for a multiphoton system, we can definitely negotiate the price of the system lower enough that we can buy this out-of-shelf turn-key behavioral device.