Morris Water Maze
The Morris Water Maze (MWM) is a behavioral assay used to investigate spatial learning and memory in laboratory rats. The apparatus consists of a large circular pool, containing water and a submerged escape platform. When a rat or a mouse is released, it will swim around the pool in search of the exit with the aid of visual cues placed around the pool. The animal's escape motivates its desire to quickly locate the hidden platform. Over a number of repeat trials the rodent 'learns' to travel to the escape platform faster and more directly from any release point. During the MWM task, various parameters are recorded to assess learning and improvement in spatial memory. For the training trials, latency to find the platform location is recorded. This is usually followed by the probe trials, where the platform is removed, and the percentage of time spent in the quadrant that normally contains the platform is compared to the time spent in other quadrants.
Analysing MWM experiments using Actual products is easy, and ActualTrack: Rodent Edition is designed specifically for analysing rodent behavior. An animal in the MWM set-up is monitored with a video camera mounted above the centre of the pool and is connected to a computer to record a video file. ActualTrack: Rodent Edition software analyses the video file and identifies the animal within the pool and tracks it while searching for the platform. Using ActualTrack: Rodent Edition you can accurately and automatically extract measures such as latency, time, speed and path (or distance travelled) based on the animal. With ActualTrack: Rodent Edition, locomotor activity in the MWM is easily assessed and quantified within the pool quadrants, or any other region within the arena as defined by the user.
What you need to perform MWM 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 infrared (IR) lighting for recording during the dark.
- Water Maze Pool
- 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 MWM using ActualTrack: Rodent Edition:
- Locomotor results: Distance moved (cm), Average Speed (cm / s), Locomotor results for each quadrant/ zone, Heading Angle Error, Escape latency
- Zone results based on animal location: Time spent in each zone [s], Time spent in each zone [%], Latency to each first zone entry [s], Number of visits to each zone [n], Number of visits to each zone [%], First Zone visited
- 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.
