The Training Village is now available as an open-source tool for rodent training!

Back in 2020, when the pandemic forced us to pause all behavioral experiments in the middle of data collection, we found ourselves wishing that animals could train on their own without human intervention. This initial idea about creating an automatic training system began to take shape through the collaborative efforts of Rafa Marin, who developed the software and hardware, of Rafa Marin, who developed the software and hardware, Balma Serrano, who tested and refined the system, and Jaime de la Rocha, who thoughtfully guided the process. The result was the first version of the Training Village: an automated platform designed for continuous, self-paced training of mice.

Over the following years, the system kept growing and improving. With the contributions of Javier Rodríguez, Hernando Vergara, and Caterina Barezzi, the design was refined and expanded to new behavioral paradigms. And in collaboration with the Animal Minds Lab, it was successfully adapted for rats.

Six years later, we are very happy to share the system preprint, together with its webpage!!!🎉

So, how does it work? In the Training Village, group-housed rodents live in enriched home cages with access to an operant box at any time. The system provides individualized training using RFID identification, motorized doors, and video analysis. Everything can be monitored and controlled remotely via a user-friendly graphical interface, and real-time alerts are sent directly to users’ phones.

Our results show that animals quickly engage with the system, coordinate their activity to access the operant box, and progress across training stages efficiently, maintaining task engagement over months. The platform is modular and designed to be integrated with existing behavioral setups, enabling training across multiple operant paradigms. Overall, the system reduces hands-on time while improving training efficiency, reproducibility, and animal welfare. Check the system webpage and preprint for more information.

If you are tired of spending several hours per day training animals, try it—you may never want to train manually again!