Setting up apparatus

Just draw the apparatus

You simply draw directly over the video picture, to show ANY- maze which part of the image is the apparatus.

Using a selection of standard drawing tools, you can both draw the outline of the apparatus and divide the apparatus up into different areas. These areas can then be used to define zones and sequences (see below).

ANY-maze will report more than 40 different measures for the apparatus as a whole, such as distance travelled, rotations of the animal’s body, maximum speed, etc.

Click to define Zones

You can set up any number of different zones, where a zone consists of one or more of the areas in the apparatus drawing.

You can define moveable zones, where the zone adopts a different position in different tests – the platform in a water-maze for example.

Apparatus can include one or more hidden zones, such as a nest box or a tunnel. When ANY-maze can’t see the animal it assumes it is in a hidden zone.

There are a range of options for defining zone entries, including: the animal’s centre being in the zone, the animal’s head being in the zone, a certain proportion of the animal’s body being in the zone. This last option is perfect for automating rules such as four-paws-in-the-arm.

Click to define Points

You can set up any number of different Points to identify specific locations of interest within the apparatus. For example, the centres of the objects in a Novel Object Recognition Test could be defined as points.

ANY-maze reports a wide range of measures for each point, including such things as: Average distance from the point, Time moving towards the point, Time the animal’s head was oriented towards the point, etc.

Add Sequences

Sequences are used to detect movement between different parts of the apparatus

A sequence consists of a number of steps – for example, the animal moving from the stem to the left arm of a T-maze – and can be used to automatically detect such things as the animal swimming right round the edge of a water-maze, moving from one side to the other of a place preference box, or performing spontaneous alternations in a Y-maze.

ANY-maze reports such things as the number of times a sequence occurred, the total time spent performing the sequence, the duration of the fastest sequence, etc.

Change anything, at any time

The apparatus drawing, as well as the definitions of zones, points and sequences (and pretty much everything else in an experiment) can be altered at any time, whether before, during or after the tests have been performed.

There’s no re-tracking involved – ANY-maze quickly, and automatically, reanalyses the data it recorded during the tests and updates all the results to take the changes into account.

This is an extremely powerful feature, allowing you to easily extract new data from existing experiments – the video on the right shows an example of this in action.