Nesting over In zone

Aim

To pick out the data collected when one or more subjects were in a specific zone, or in a combination of zones.

Nesting over In zone is only necessary when you want to analyze track segments by combining zones or subjects. If you simply want to calculate statistics of distance, velocity etc. for each zone, without combining subjects or zones, see Calculate the results per zone.

Nesting vs. Nesting over Subjects

Notice the difference when there are multiple subjects in the same arena:

▪To select data of a subject based on that subject being in specific zones, choose In zone under Nesting. See the procedure below. See also B in Nesting vs. Nesting over subjects.

▪To select data of a subject based on other subjects being in specific zones, choose In zone under Nesting over Subjects. There you find the Actors tab where you can specify which subjects (Actors) were in the selected zone(s). For an example, see C, D in Nesting vs. Nesting over subjects. See the procedure in Nesting over subjects.

Procedure

1.In the Data Profile, under Nesting click the button next to In Zone.

2.In the In Zone window, under In the following zones, deselect Arena and select the zones in which the animal must be.

3.Choose the remaining options to specify which combination of zone (any, all, not in any) and body points. For explanation, see Dependent Variables in Detail > In zone.

4.Click OK. Proceed with step 4 in How to select track segments.

Notes

▪If your experiment is set to Only center-point detection, the From following body points options are not available. Calculations are based on the center-point of the body.

▪Select When in all selected zones only when the zones are overlapping at least partially (for example, North Quadrant and Center of an open field). If two zones are not overlapping, selecting When in all selected zones results in no data being selected, because a body point can never be in two different locations at the same time.

Application examples

example 1  A Center zone has been defined in an open field. When you do Nesting and choose Center under In the following zones, the samples in the center of the open field are selected for analysis. When you visualize the track, selected samples are displayed in bright colors; non-selected samples are dimmed out (see below).

 

example 2  For the same open field as above, but when also tracking the nose and tail-base points, if you select the three body points and select All selected points from the list, a sample is only selected when the three body points are within the Center zone. In the example below, the tail-base is outside the Center zone (highlighted in yellow). Therefore, that sample is not selected for analysis.