Light / Dark Box

The Light / Dark box test is commonly used to assess anxiety-related behaviour in rodents. The test is based on a conflict between the innate aversion of rodents to brightly illuminated areas and on their spontaneous exploratory behaviour in novel environments. The test apparatus comprises a dark compartment and an illuminated compartment. A door or a covered black tunnel connects the dark box and enables a mouse to freely move back and forth between the light and dark areas. The animal is initially placed in the dark portion of the box for a set period of time to acclimate. Following this period, the door separating the two compartments is opened and the anxiety-related behavior is measured by recording two parameters: the amount of time spent in the lit compartment and the number of transitions between compartments. Anxiety is regarded high if the amount of time spent in the lit compartment and the number of transitions between compartments are low. The time spent in the illuminated box and the associated exploratory behaviors are considered reliable parameters for assessing anxiolytic-like activity, and are useful for identifying anxiolytic and anxiogenic drug treatments.

Analysing Light / Dark box experiments using Actual products is easy, and ActualTrack: Rodent Edition is designed specifically for analysing rodent behavior. An animal in the Light / Dark box 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 arena and determine its position. Using ActualTrack: Rodent Edition you can define regions (zones) for the Light and Dark compartments and accurately and automatically monitor entry of the animal in to each compartment based on the location of its head, centre of mass, and tail base (or any combination thereof). WithActualTrack: Rodent Edition, locomotor activity within a Light / Dark box experiment is easily assessed and quantified within each compartment and as defined by the user.

What you need to perform Light / Dark box 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

- Light / Dark box (rat or mouse).

- 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 an Light / Dark box with ActualTrack: Rodent Edition:

- Locomotor results: Distance moved (cm), Average Speed (cm / s), Locomotor results for each box

- Zone results (Light and Dark boxes) based on animal location: Time spent in each box [s], Time spent in each box [%], Latency to each first box entry [s], Number of visits to each box [n], Number of visits to each box [%], First box visited, Box transitions & timings, Average time spent per visit to each box (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.