Start/stop the trial in the Morris water maze test

Aim 1

To stop tracking when the animal has found the platform.

Procedure

1.In the Arena Settings, make sure that the platform has been defined as zone.

2.In the Trial Control Settings, delete the Time condition before the Stop track box.

3.Define an In Zone condition. See also Stop tracking based on the behavior of the subject

If you want the program to stop recording as soon as the animal is over the platform, select Frequency as Statistic and choose >= 1. Click Settings and select the platform zone. See details about the variable In zone

Sometimes the animal swims over the platform, but it does not stop there. In such cases the program would stop recording while the animal has not ‘found’ the platform. Instead of selecting Frequency, choose Current Duration and the minimum time the animal must stay on the platform (for example, 3 s) without interruption. Click Settings and select the platform zone.

 

Aim 2

To stop tracking either when the rat has found the platform, or when it has been swimming in the water maze for 60 seconds.

Procedure

The Arena Settings and the condition “the rat has found the platform” are similar to those in the example above. The condition “rat swimming for 60 s” can be translated to “time from start tracking >= 60 s”.

The track stops when either condition is met. The two conditions are combined with OR logic. See also Operators.

This solution results in tracks of different duration: less than 60 s for the animals that found the platform, and 60 s for the others.

With the Start-Stop trial rule shown below, the trial stops when the subject has been in the platform zone for at least 3 s without break, or the time since the start of tracking is 60 s.

 

A. In zone condition that specifies that the subject must be for at least 3 seconds over the Platform zone. Select Current duration >= 3s.

B. Time condition that specifies a time of 60 s since the track started.

C. ‘Any’ operator box.