Barnes Maze
The Barnes maze is a behavioral experiment used to assess spatial learning and memory in rodents. The maze consists of a flat, circular table with a number of evenly spaced holes around the circumference of the table. Each of the holes could be opened or closed via a sliding door located under the hole and leads into an escape box. The Barnes maze task exploits the innate preference of rats and mice for dark, enclosed spaces over open areas. The test requires the rodent to learn the position of a hole that can be used as a shelter from the brightly lit, open surface of the maze.
The animal is first habituated to the Barnes maze by manual guiding into the escape box for about five trial runs. Rodents quickly learn the location of an escape hole using the spatial reference points that are either fixed relative to the maze or are on the maze itself and located relative to the escape hole. After the trial runs, each mouse is permitted to explore the maze freely and their activity monitored while they find the escape hole. Once the rat or mouse enters the escape box, the hole is covered to prevent the animal from re-emerging.
Typical performance measurements of the Barnes maze task include total distance moved, the average speed and duration time taken to locate the escape hole. Search strategies are primarily evaluated by the number of errors (rodent pokes its nose into or around a hole that does not contain the drop box) prior to locating the escape hole.
Analysing Barnes maze experiments using Actual products is easy, and ActualTrack: Rodent Edition is designed specifically for analysing rodent behavior. An animal in the Barnes maze set-up is monitored with a video camera mounted above the experimental arena and is connected to a computer to record a video file. ActualTrack: Rodent Edition software analyses the video file and utilises three-point animal tracking (head, centre of mass, and tail base) to identify the animal within the circular maze and determine its position. Using ActualTrack: Rodent Edition you can define regions for each of the holes, and ActualTrack will identify when the animal is investigating a hole or has escaped into a hole, using the position of its nose relative to the region. With ActualTrack: Rodent Edition locomotor activity within the Barnes maze is also easily assessed and quantified in any user-defined region within the arena.
What you need to perform Barnes maze experiments using ActualTrack: Rodent Edition:
- Digital Camera: from standard digital video camera to professional digital High Definition cameras (to enhance resolution of very small animals or large arenas) ActualTrack: Rodent Edition can work with almost any common video format. See our recommended camera list for the most appropriate camera for your set-up.
- ActualCapture Software (optional) - enables easy direct recording of your experiment to a digital video file. This is recommended when you do not already have a camera and recording software. If you would like us to arrange and supply recording set-up, please contact us.
- Lighting: diffuse lighting from directly above or below, or infrared (IR) lighting for recording during the dark.
- Barnes maze
- A computer with a web browser and web access (see requirements for details).
- ActualTrack: Rodent Edition software
Our tracking, scoring and video capture software can be easily optimised to a broad range of hardware and experimental set-ups to ensure the best possible conditions for your video analysis. If required, please contact us for recommendations and a list of preferred suppliers of hardware.
What you can analyse in a Barnes maze with ActualTrack: Rodent Edition:
- Locomotor results: Distance moved (cm), Average Speed (cm / s), Locomotor results for each zone (hole)
- Zone results based on location of the animal's nose in relation to the hole: Time spent visiting each hole [s], Time spent visiting each hole [%], Latency to first hole entry [s], Number of visits to each hole [n], Number of visits to each hole [%], First hole visited, Order & times of holes visited, escape latency [s]
- Visualisations: Birds nest plot, heat map
- ActualScore functionality allows for integrated manual coding user defined behaviors
- All results are calculated automatically and provided in an easy to use CSV format which can be imported in to most statistical analysis packages for further investigation and graphical representation
- and much more...
For more information, see the product information, or get in touch to find out more about how ActualTrack: Rodent Edition could help you achieve the results you need.
