A Wireless Wearable Platform for Intravenous Drug Self-Administration in Freely Behaving Rats
- 1Washington University in St. Louis
Abstract
Studying how drugs act on neuronal circuits requires delivering them with temporal precision while behavior proceeds undisturbed, a combination that tethered infusion systems cannot provide. We developed WEARIT (Wireless Equipment for Autonomous Rat Infusion Tasks), a wearable, tetherless infusion platform that gives freely moving rats intravenous access under either remote or closed-loop operant control. The device houses a reservoir, miniaturized pump, rechargeable battery and Bluetooth circuitry in a 3D-printed enclosure worn on the back. By measuring spontaneous locomotion, amphetamine-induced hyperlocomotion and food-reinforced operant responding, we show that WEARIT leaves these behaviors unchanged. Remotely triggered fentanyl infusions yielded reliable delivery with physiological responses confirmed by pulse oximetry, and self-administration acquisition and dose-response functions were comparable to conventional tethered systems. WEARIT removes a longstanding constraint on intravenous pharmacology, opening self-administration paradigms to naturalistic and enriched environments and to concurrent imaging or optogenetic manipulation of the circuits engaged by drug reinforcement.
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BibTeX
@misc{jeong2026wireless,
title = {{A Wireless Wearable Platform for Intravenous Drug Self-Administration in Freely Behaving Rats}},
author = {E. Y. Jeong and C. D. Teague and A. Reimert and S. Cho and J. Lee and T. Althoff and K. Lin and M. Nair and T. Leong and E. Silva and K. E. Parker and C. M. Cahill and J. G. McCall and J.-W. Jeong and N. Massaly},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.08.750146},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.08.750146v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A Wireless Wearable Platform for Intravenous Drug Self-Administration in Freely Behaving Rats
AU - E. Y. Jeong
AU - C. D. Teague
AU - A. Reimert
AU - S. Cho
AU - J. Lee
AU - T. Althoff
AU - K. Lin
AU - M. Nair
AU - T. Leong
AU - E. Silva
AU - K. E. Parker
AU - C. M. Cahill
AU - J. G. McCall
AU - J.-W. Jeong
AU - N. Massaly
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/08
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.08.750146
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.08.750146v1
AB - Studying how drugs act on neuronal circuits requires delivering them with temporal precision while behavior proceeds undisturbed, a combination that tethered infusion systems cannot provide. We developed WEARIT (Wireless Equipment for Autonomous Rat Infusion Tasks), a wearable, tetherless infusion platform that gives freely moving rats intravenous access under either remote or closed-loop operant control. The device houses a reservoir, miniaturized pump, rechargeable battery and Bluetooth circuitry in a 3D-printed enclosure worn on the back. By measuring spontaneous locomotion, amphetamine-induced hyperlocomotion and food-reinforced operant responding, we show that WEARIT leaves these behaviors unchanged. Remotely triggered fentanyl infusions yielded reliable delivery with physiological responses confirmed by pulse oximetry, and self-administration acquisition and dose-response functions were comparable to conventional tethered systems. WEARIT removes a longstanding constraint on intravenous pharmacology, opening self-administration paradigms to naturalistic and enriched environments and to concurrent imaging or optogenetic manipulation of the circuits engaged by drug reinforcement.
ER -