Schematic of the Y-mazes closed loop.  A setup consisting of a rig with many Y-mazes is illuminated from below with a diffuser in between. Above a camera records from the behaving flies in the Y-mazes and track different parameters online over the time course of the experiment with a custom software. The initial paradigm detects whenever the fly enters the middle-vertical arm and consequently send the signal to the projector to illuminate that arm, which in turn reinforeces the fly behavior.

Below the validation tests at three different intensities (columns: intensities relative to projector max. output). I measured three different parameters for this validation (rows), for two conditions, with and without ATR (first and second graph). It seems like the paradigm affects both, number of entries and dwelling time within the arm. It seems like at the maximum intensity, even without ATR there might be an effect.