Import data from other experiments
Aim
To analyze data collected in two or more (identical) experiments.
example You run experiments with a number of PhenoTyper cages. Each group of four PhenoTypers is controlled by a computer with EthoVision XT. Therefore, you have as many experiments as computers. You would like to analyze all the data from the original (source) experiments in one master experiment.
Prerequisites
▪You have two or more EthoVision XT experiments containing data.
▪The setup must be identical between the original experiments. Import of different experiments (e.g. am open field and a PhenoTyper) won’t work.
▪The original experiments and the master experiment must have identical settings. For example:
▪The same detected features (e.g. center point);
▪The same number of arenas and the same number of subjects per arena;
▪The same Arena Settings, with for example the same zone names, Detection Settings and Trial Control Settings.
▪The same Behavior Recognition settings.
▪The same behavioral events defined in the Manual Scoring Settings.
▪The same hardware device names, mapped on the same arenas. For example, Lickometer 1 must be mapped on Arena 1 in all experiments.
tip When you create the first of the original experiments, adjust the settings and then, before acquiring the first trial, save it with a different name to create an identical copy (File > Save As). This is going to be your second original experiment.
Step 1 - Create the empty master experiment
1.Start EthoVision XT on the PC that contains one of the original experiments.
2.Choose File > New from Template. Choose Use a custom template and select one of the original experiments. Select the file with the name of that experiment and the extension evxt.
3.Complete the procedure, and give the new experiment a name, for example Master experiment.
4.If you intend to work with the master experiment on a different PC, copy the original experiments and the master experiment to another PC.
Step 2 - Import the trials into the master experiment
1.If needed, copy the original experiments to the PC where the master experiment is stored.
2.Open the master experiment (see above).
3.Choose Setup > Trial List.
4.Delete the empty trials in the master experiments. These rows were generated and left empty when you created the experiment from the custom template. You do not need them, so select all rows, right-click and choose Delete Trials. See Delete trials
5.Click the Import Trials button.
6.In the window that opens, select EthoVision XT data (trials) and click OK.
7.Locate the experiment that you want to import. Select the file with the extension evxt and click Open. To locate this file, open the folder that has the same name as the experiment.
8.Select which trials you want to import. If you want to copy the video files into the master experiment, select Also import the associated video files.
note This option only applies when the video files were generated by EthoVision XT in experiments set to Live tracking. If your original experiments are set to Offline tracking, the video files that were used to do tracking are not copied; however, the master experiment preserves the link to those video files.
9.After import, which may take some time depending on the number and length of the tracks, the imported trials are shown in the trial list.
Result of the trial import
What is imported in the master experiment:
▪The trials (track data, independent variables, manually-scored events, hardware events)
▪The settings associated with the trials (Arena Settings, Trial Control Settings, Detection Settings, Manual Scoring Settings).
▪The physiological data associated with the trials.
Notes
▪If two settings profiles have the same name but slightly differ, for example one detection settings profile Detection Settings 1 in the first experiment set to Gray Scaling 40 to 255 while the Detection Settings 1 in the second experiment is set to Gray Scaling 45 to 255, the second imported experiment is renamed; in this example Detection Settings 1 (1).
▪If two settings profiles are exactly the same in the original experiments, they are imported with the same name.
▪There may be subtle differences between the master experiment and one of the original experiments which cause import to fail. For example, in the master experiment a Trial Control Settings profile contains a condition named Time (1), while the same settings profile in experiment 1 or 2 contains the same condition named Time (2). Although the settings profiles have the same name, EthoVision XT detects that their content is different. Please follow the procedures above to make sure that the master experiment is an exact copy of the original experiments.
▪When you select the option Also include the associated video files and only for video files recorded with EthoVision XT, those video files are copied to the Media Files folder of the master experiment. If you do not select that option, you can still view the videos in the master experiment, provided that they are still stored in the original experiment.
▪If you record video with MediaRecorder or software other than EthoVision XT, the video files are not copied to the master experiment anyway, also when they are stored in the Media Files folder of the original experiments. However, the Trial List shows the link to the original video files.